Underestimated Bohemians intent on making their point

Bohemians (1) v SV Salzburg (1), Venue: Dalymount Park, Kick-off: 7.30pm: RED BULL Salzburg may start tonight's Champions League encounter with Bohemians at Dalymount Park as favourites by virtue of the string of internationals their owners' money has brought to the club in recent years.

But Pat Fenlon’s hope that their manager, Huub Stevens, might take progression to the third qualifying round for granted appeared to be coming true last night as his Dutch counterpart confidently predicted an away victory.

The Dubliners carry a slight advantage into the game having drawn 1-1 last week in Austria but Stevens insists that the evidence of the first game, in which Bohemians had close to as much time on the ball but the home side enjoyed a near monopoly of the scoring opportunities, suggests his side are good enough to pull through.

“When you look at the chances we created and the mistakes we made,” he said, “well, it’s 1-1 but really we need to win. Salzburg are a very good team, so are Bohemians, but I very much expect that Salzburg will come away on top.”

The visiting side, however, are to some extent victims of their high spending with the coach’s selection options somewhat restricted by the fact Salzburg have only been allowed to register 21 rather than 25 players for European competition because they do not have the desired amount of home-grown talent as set out in Uefa regulations.

The upshot is Alexander Zickler, the club’s most experienced player and a Champions League winner during his 12 years with Bayern Munich, is ineligible having been omitted from the list of players submitted to Uefa on the basis he has been injured recently and, it is suspected, Stevens would rather like to move him on.

Zickler drew attention to his omission by coming on in the club’s opening league game of the season at the weekend – a 2-1 win over Austria Vienna in which the champions came from behind – and scoring but even without his inclusion this evening there is expected to be five or perhaps six changes to the side that let their first-half lead slip last Wednesday.

Four were made for Sunday’s win as Stevens went beyond those forced upon him and looked to shake things up in the light of what was perceived to have been a “tame” showing against Bohemians while 21-year-old Cameroonian Louis Mahop has a hamstring injury and Ugandan international defender Ibrahim Sekagya is a doubt with the same problem.

If the latter fails to make it, the visitors will have just enough bodies for the seven places they are allowed on the bench.

Fenlon, meanwhile, will most likely stick with the starting 11 from the first game with Anto Murphy’s improving fitness providing the only serious temptation to tinker with the team.

With Owen Heary out injured, the Dubliner could come in either at right back for Mark Rossiter or on the right side of midfield, a move that would allow Jason Byrne to replace Glen Crowe in attack. However, the reality is Fenlon, who also has Glen Cronin available for a place on the bench, seems inclined to stick with both the players and the system that served him well a week ago despite acknowledging Murphy “is in my mind” as we weighs up his selection.

The Bohemians boss, who will be glad to hear Alan Kelly is coming along to watch goalkeeper Brian Murphy on behalf of Giovanni Trapattoni, was clearly unaware Zickler could not be brought in by the visitors for he says he obtained DVDs from games last season in which the German played in order to brief his players on the 35-year-old.

Fortunately, Somen Tchoyi, who also came on against Austria Vienna and scored, having missed last week’s game, was the other subject of the research and he will feature so the time has not all been wasted.

Fenlon respects tonight’s opponents but it is clear he suspects they might not wholeheartedly return the compliment with Stevens’ post-match comments last Wednesday striking him as a little presumptuous even before yesterday’s press conference in Dublin.

“The impression I got was that they thought they would finish the job off in Dublin anyway,” he said. “I think they know that they’ve created a fair few chances in the game and they’ll fancy their chances of doing that in Dublin as well. But I think we’ll create a few more this time too.

“We need to start the game well, obviously not concede a goal, keep the ball and get the crowd behind us and off their seats. I think the longer it goes the harder game it will become for them. I know people talk about how big it is financially for us but it’s huge for them.

“I saw that as well with Hajduk Split. Financially for them it was a massive game. I knew after we scored the second goal out in Split that they felt a little bit of panic.

“When they got to Tolka Park it got worse and I’m hoping that when they arrive there tomorrow night to train, see the environment, the away dressingroom and everything else that they might say: ‘This might be a little bit more difficult than we thought’.”

There were certainly no signs of it after Stevens and his squad trained at Dalymount although the fact that the pitch was “curvy” unlike “the flat ones we tend to have across the water” was remarked upon. “We like it very much, though,” insisted Stevens with a rare grin.