Derry City Jamu CSKA Sofia di Kualifikasi Liga Europa

Klub asal Irlandia Utara, Derry City, bersiap menjamu wakil Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia, dalam laga leg kedua babak kualifikasi pertama Liga Europa UEFA di Stadion Ryan McBride Brandywell pada Kamis malam, 16 Juli 2026. Tuan rumah yang berjuluk Candystripes tersebut mengemban misi berat untuk membalikkan ketertinggalan agregat 3-2 demi mengamankan tiket kelolosan ke babak berikutnya.

Kekuatan lini belakang dan tengah Derry City mendapatkan suntikan tenaga baru seiring kembalinya Adam O'Reilly dan Brandon Fleming ke dalam skuad. Namun, manajer Derry City, Tiernan Lynch, masih belum bisa menurunkan James Clarke dan Gavin Whyte yang baru pulih dari cedera, sementara Darragh Markey dipastikan absen hingga akhir musim.

Menghadapi tantangan besar dari tim tamu yang diunggulkan secara finansial, manajer Tiernan Lynch menekankan pentingnya bagi skuadnya untuk tampil berani tanpa rasa gentar.

"We’ve be telling the players that no disrespect to CSKA, but it’s not Barcelona we’re playing. I feel we saw in the last 30 minutes in the first leg in Sofia that we can play at this level and we can compete at this level, so it’s really important that we don’t show any disrespect, but it’s also important that we go into the game and try to impose our game plan. " ujar Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Sang manajer juga mengingatkan anak asuhnya untuk mempertahankan ketenangan demi memanfaatkan setiap celah pertahanan lawan yang bisa dieksploitasi.

"As long as we give 100 per cent, then I think we’ll be OK. But as I said I think there’s areas where we can exploit them and if we can show the bravery that we need to show we’ll cause them problems; there’s no doubt about that." kata Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Satu gol telat yang dicetak oleh James Olayinka pada leg pertama dinilai Lynch menjadi modal krusial sekaligus landasan perjuangan timnya di kandang sendiri.

"As far as I’m concerned, it’s in our hands, and I think that last goal from James (Olayinka) really gave us a wee bit of a platform now and something for us to really go and get after, but we have to make sure that we manage the game." lanjut Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Lynch menegaskan bahwa Derry City tidak akan bermain bertahan secara penuh demi mengejar defisit gol, namun taktik permainan harus tetap dikelola dengan sangat hati-hati.

"We won’t be defensively minded, because we’re a goal behind, but it’s one of those situations where we don’t want to kill the tie before you get yourself potentially back into the tie and we’re going to be conscious of that." tegas Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Pemahaman taktis mengenai kekuatan personalia dari tim lawan menjadi fokus utama evaluasi tim kepelatihan setelah laga pertama di Sofia.

"We have to understand the areas where we feel that we can exploit them and we’ve now a little bit more knowledge of their personnel and technically they’re a very good team." kata Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Lynch juga menyoroti adanya kejutan formasi yang diterapkan oleh tim tamu pada pertandingan pekan lalu, yang sempat di luar ekspektasi timnya.

"They’ve some really good footballers and are a real threat, they’ve obviously a couple of players that we expected to play, that didn’t play and we were probably taking a little bit back by the shape that they played, as it wasn’t the shape that we were expecting." tambah Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Kendati demikian, fokus utama Derry City kini diarahkan sepenuhnya pada peningkatan rasa percaya diri serta ketenangan bermain skuad mereka sendiri di lapangan.

"Who knows what Thursday’s going to bring from their end, but as we’ve talked about with our boys, they’re a couple of elements of our game that we need to get better at; we have to show a little bit more confidence in ourselves and a bit more composure in ourselves." pungkas Tiernan Lynch, Manajer Derry City.

Di kubu lawan, CSKA Sofia yang datang membawa bintang-bintang barunya seperti Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Stefano Sensi, dan Joel Zvarts tetap optimis melangkah ke putaran kedua, meskipun sempat terganggu masalah visa bagi dua pemain asal Belarus.