Derry City Jamu CSKA Sofia di Kualifikasi Liga Europa

Klub sepak bola asal Irlandia Utara, Derry City, dijadwalkan menjamu wakil Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia, dalam pertandingan leg kedua babak kualifikasi pertama Liga Europa UEFA di Stadion Ryan McBride Brandywell pada Kamis malam, 16 Juli 2026.

Tuan rumah mengemban misi membalikkan ketertinggalan agregat 2-3 setelah pada leg pertama di Stadion Nasional Vasil Levski menelan kekalahan tipis dari skuad asuhan Hristo Yanev.

Persiapan tim tamu dilaporkan sedikit terganggu akibat kendala dokumen perjalanan untuk dua pemain pilar mereka yang berasal dari Belarus.

"CSKA menginformasikan bahwa saat ini pesepak bola kami dan pemain tim nasional Belarusia — Fyodor Lapoukhov dan Max Ebong — belum menerima visa yang diperlukan dari otoritas Inggris untuk perjalanan mereka ke Irlandia Utara. CSKA mengajukan semua dokumen yang diperlukan tepat waktu, tetapi masalah ini belum terselesaikan. Klub telah menginformasikan kepada semua institusi Bulgaria yang kompeten, serta UEFA, tentang situasi ini. Jika kedua pemain tidak menerima visa tepat waktu, they tidak akan dapat berpartisipasi dalam pertandingan leg kedua melawan 'Derry City' di babak kualifikasi pertama Liga Eropa, yang akan berlangsung pada 16 Juli," rilis pernyataan resmi CSKA Sofia.

Manajer Derry City, Tiernan Lynch, mencoba memberikan motivasi tinggi serta meminta anak asuhnya menikmati kesempatan bertanding di level kompetisi Eropa ini.

"I think the big thing is and the message I keep trying to get through to the players is probably two-fold," kata Tiernan Lynch.

Lynch meminta skuad Candystripes untuk memanfaatkan atmosfer pertandingan kandang dengan maksimal demi menjaga peluang lolos.

"One, you have to enjoy every minute of these experiences. They don't come around very often so when you get decent ties like this, you have to enjoy it." tutur Tiernan Lynch.

Manajer Derry City tersebut menegaskan pentingnya membawa agregat seimbang dan bersikap optimistis menghadapi kekuatan tim tamu.

"The second message is we have to try and get this tie back to the Brandywell tomorrow night - that's very much what it is about for us." ucap Tiernan Lynch.

Lynch juga mengingatkan para pemainnya bahwa tim lawan bukanlah tim yang tidak bisa dikalahkan di level kompetisi ini.

"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.

Pihaknya meminta tim untuk tampil berani demi bisa mengeksploitasi setiap celah pertahanan dari tim raksasa Bulgaria tersebut.

"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.

Satu gol telat yang dicetak di Sofia dinilai menjadi pijakan krusial bagi strategi permainan ofensif mereka 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.

Derry City dipastikan tidak akan bermain bertahan total mengingat kondisi mereka yang sedang tertinggal defisit satu gol.

"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.

Tim kepelatihan Derry City juga terus mempelajari video pertandingan sebelumnya guna membaca komposisi taktis lawan secara detail.

"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.

Lynch mengakui ada kejutan taktis dari tim lawan pada laga leg pertama yang sempat merombak prediksi awal 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.

Lynch kemudian menutup keterangannya dengan menekankan pentingnya faktor ketenangan serta kepercayaan diri para pemain.

"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.

Sementara itu, bek tengah Derry City Patrick McClean mengungkit kembali sejarah pertemuan lama antarklub saat kakaknya terlibat di laga tersebut.

"James was on the bench," kata Patrick McClean.

Pemain berusia 29 tahun itu mengingat bagaimana hasil ketat diraih kedua tim pada kompetisi musim 2009-2010 silam.

"they took the lead and Derry equalised, but they won the tie 2-1 after winning the first leg 1-0 in Sofia." tambah Patrick McClean.

Ia menyebut kompetisi Eropa memberikan gairah baru bagi tim di tengah performa liga domestik mereka yang sedang tertahan.

"The boys are all excited and ready to go. These European ties mean we’re putting the league to bed for a month and focusing on something else, giving us a fresh start." ujar Patrick McClean.

McClean mengonfirmasi timnya menerima kritik tajam menyusul kekalahan telak dari Waterford di kompetisi domestik akhir pekan lalu.

"We have to put everything behind us because there has been a lot of negative, and obviously rightly so we’re getting a lot of stick, but if we can go and put a good run together here then we can give the fans something to cheer about, which we haven’t done this season." tutur Patrick McClean.

Dirinya menghormati kekuatan CSKA Sofia yang dinilai memiliki banyak pemain berlabel tim nasional internasional.

"CSKA Sofia were probably the team that we were looking at most and hoping we got them, and that’s no disrespect to them." kata Patrick McClean.

Ia percaya timnya mampu mendulang hasil maksimal jika mampu tampil disiplin sepanjang jalannya pertandingan dua leg.

"We know we’re more than capable of getting a result, but it’s just about going there and making sure we keep the tie alive and get back to the Brandywell, where hopefully we’ll have a full house." ucap Patrick McClean.

Bek Derry City tersebut mengaku melakukan analisis personal secara mandiri demi mengantisipasi pola serangan tim lawan.

"But that’s going to be the case for them playing against us, and then it’s all about who does it over the two legs. We’ve watched them and I’ve been watching some of my own stuff and I’ll obviously be doing my own homework on them as well… they’ve got some good players and some internationals." kata Patrick McClean.

Atmosfer kompetisi tingkat Eropa diakuinya sebagai alasan utama di balik keputusannya kembali memperkuat tim Candystripes.

"Playing in Europe in these types of games is why I came back to Derry." tutur Patrick McClean.

Ia meminta seluruh rekan setimnya fokus pada laga di depan mata tanpa terbebani hasil buruk pada masa lalu.

"We can’t be looking too far ahead and at the same time we can’t be looking at the past and what has happened, because it means nothing and it isn’t going to help us," kata Patrick McClean.

Ia berharap dukungan penuh publik tuan rumah di Brandywell mampu mengangkat performa dan moralitas tim secara kolektif.

"We know things haven’t been good enough this season, but we’ve got a chance here now to rally and give the fans something to shout about." ujar Patrick McClean.

Pemenang dari pertandingan ini dijadwalkan akan melaju ke babak berikutnya untuk menghadapi Qarabağ FK atau Vestri.