The good and bad of a Dundalk progress tonight

Tonight Dundalk will be aiming to do what a League of Ireland side has failed to do since 2011 and get through a round in the champions league. Back then it was Shamrock Rovers who overcame Estonians Flora Tallinn to get through to the 3rd qualifying round where they ended up losing to FC Kobenhavn before dropping into the Europa League play-offs in which the overcame to reach the group stage.
Tonight Dundalk face a much tougher opponent in serial Belorussian title winners BATE Borisov with the prize of up to €500k on offer for progress. Huge money for Dundalk, an installment for BATE.
However Dundalk's opponents are an interesting case study of what progress could result in. Rewind back to summer 2003 when Bohemians faced BATE Borisov in the 1st qualifying round. Bohs beat BATE 3-1 on aggregate to progress and few would've predicted that in the 12 years since, BATE would've reached the group stage three times. The group stage is life changing or can be for a club outside the "major" leagues of Europe. The money on offer could and has in BATE's case upgraded facilities, improve the youth academy and attract higher caliber players.
By having Dundalk progress tonight means the country co-efficient will improve which does affect other sides. If the co-efficient is high enough Irish sides might be starting in the 2nd qualifying round in the Europa League and not the 1st which offers more money to participants. Also by seeing Dundalk progress other sides in the league will strive to improve to get their own payday from Europe. In Belarus last season Dinamo Minsk reached the group stage of the Europa League and that in itself not only bought money to them it helped raise the co-efficient even higher.
Those are the positives that progress through rounds in the champions league can do for a club. The negatives are also seen with BATE Borisov. Since they've broken into the champions league group stage BATE have enjoyed a complete monopoly of the domestic league. The Belorussian league is now a replica of what the Scottish Premiership is with Celtic, a procession. Before BATE and their riches from European progress happened the league was lower key but at least it was competitive. In fact between 1998 and 2005 (just before BATE's current 9 in a row title streak) there were seven different title winners. Since then no one has had a look in. BATE continue to pocket the massive champions league money while the likes of Dinamo Minsk and Shakhtyor Solihorsk (Who both won titles in that competitive period) scrap for Europa league money which itself isn't bad but not as high as the champions league money obviously.

That is the major negative that progress for Dundalk would be. The league of Ireland is one the rare leagues in Europe that is actually competitive. In the decade we have seen Cork City, Shelbourne, Drogheda, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, St Pats and Dundalk all win the title at least once. With the riches on offer to Dundalk there is a possibility that they could pull away from the rest and dominate the league like BATE have done in Belarus or Rosenborg did in Norway when they hit the big time.

Sevilla doing what they do best

Fresh from winning back-to-back Europa League titles, one might have feared the worst when it emerged not long afterwards that top scorer Carlos Bacca was packing his bags for AC Milan in what turned out to be a €30 million transfer fee. However the truth is, Sevilla have been here before, many times.
Carlos Bacca's departure will hurt no doubt but Sevilla are quiet capable of replacing departing star players with cheaper potential star players. In fact Bacca is a case study in this. Signed back in 2013 from Belgian side Club Brugge for a relatively cheap €7 million, Bacca was signed to replace the departing top scorer of 2012-13 Álvaro Negredo who was sold to Manchester City for around €25 million.
Replacing Bacca in 2015 is Italian striker Ciro Immobile signed on loan from Borussia Dortmund. Immobile impressed while at Torino two seasons ago and will be hoping to replicate that sort of form for Sevilla who are also back in the champions league this season.
The policy at Sevilla is clear buy low and sell high and you could make a pretty decent team with the players they have sold particularly in the last few years with the likes of Ivan Rakitic, Jesús Navas, Álvaro Negredo, Aleix Vidal, Adriano and Kondogbia.
This summer they have signed Yevhen Konoplyanka, Gael Kakuta, Micheal Krohn-Dehli, Adil Rami and Steven N'Zonzi for a combined €20 million. All decent players that should give Sevilla more depth to their squad for the coming campaign. You don't need to be an expert to see that if Kakuta and Konoplyanka have a few impressive seasons with the club they'll be the next €20-30 million rated players leaving Sevilla and the process starts again.
Sevilla's key players these days have been signed for peanuts in today's market. Vitolo was a €3 million signing in 2013, Trémoulinas was signed for under €4 million last summer and Polish rock Gregorz Krychowiak was signed for what now looks a give away at €5 million last summer.

Even with the champions league money this season, Sevilla are not going mad. The policy remains the same as they look to stabilize the club off the pitch. The risk is always spending the money unwisely and then missing out on the champions league the following season. For a few years Sevilla's transfers were not working out, the likes of Tom De Mul, Romaric and Morgan De Sanctis were signed and didn't produce so Sevilla's league position declined. They are now back on the upward curve on and off the pitch and it remains to be seen just how far they can go in the champions league this coming season.

Europa League 1st Qualifying Round

The conclusion of the 2nd legs on Thursday saw the end of European interests for 51 sides across Europe including my own Cork City. 

The biggest casualty was Crvena Zvezda (commonly known as Red Star Belgrade). They bowed out 4-1 on aggregate to Kazakhs Kairat Almaty. The Serbs gave themselves a mountain to climb with the early red card in the first leg and the concession of two away goal to Almaty made it difficult and played in Kairat's hands. 

Other sides to bit the bullet were Dinamo Tbilisi, Go Ahead Eagles, Sherriff Tiraspol and St Johnstone. 

The St Johnstone result was probably a shock since they were expected to get through against Armenians Alashkert Yerevan. In the end they bowed out on away goals. Aberdeen did at least get through so all was not lost for Scottish representation. 

Mixed bag for Ireland

Ireland had a mixed round. We'll start with Cork City as they limped out to KR Reykjavík. Taking a 1-1 scoreline into the 2nd leg City got the perfect start with an early goal to edge in front. Any more goals for city at this point would mean KR would've had to win the game outright. Instead City invited KR onto them. KR were also down to ten just before half-time but it was them that preceded dominate but lacked a cutting edge up front until the 75th minute when they found the breakthrough. The tie went to extra-time and KR got a 2nd goal which left City needing to score to go through. The goal never came and it was the Icelandic's that progressed. 

St Pat's also crashed out of Europe as Skonto Riga won 2-0 in Inchicore. Pat's were beaten in the first leg but had the away goal which was hoped would be vital. However the Latvian side registered a 2-0 win and left Pat's ruing what might have been. 

Shamrock Rovers did progress but only after a scoreless first leg in Luxembourg against Progrés Niederkorn. A 3-0 win in Tallaght on Tuesday saw Rovers through in comfortable style. 

The biggest news from Ireland though was UCD. The Dubliners who are actually playing first division football this season progressed against leading Luxemburg side F91 Dudelange on away goals. The 2nd leg saw UCD lose 2-1 but that away goal was enough to squeeze through. The award? a tie against Slovan Bratislava. 

The North lost Glentoran as they were beaten easily by MSK Zilina from Slovakia. Glenavon are also gone after a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Shaktyor Solihorsk of Belarus. Linfield however did progress although the almost didn't as they lost the away leg 4-3 to NSÍ Runavík from the Faroe Islands. Linfield will play Spartak Trnava of Slovakia in the next round. 

Trashings

There were a few trashing with the notable one being Brondby putting 11 past Juvenes/Dogana of San Marino over two legs. A 9-0 win at home rendered the 2nd leg a dead-rubber but a 2-0 success for the Danes saw them continue with the goalscoring form to take into the 2nd qualifying round where they will face Beroe of Bulgaria. 

Jagiellonia Bialystok were also big winners with a 9-0 aggregate win over Lithuanians Kruoja. However it took a stoppage time winner in the first leg for them to take a lead into the home leg where they ran riot putting eight past the Lithuanians on Thursday. 

Elfsborg made things look easy with a 5-0 2nd leg win over Lahti from Finland to go through 7-2 on aggregate while AIK posted a 4-0 2nd leg win to go through 6-2 over two legs against VPS from Finalnd as well. 

Slovan Bratislava were 9-0 aggregate winners over Europa from Gibraltar and Vaduz registered a 10-1 aggregate scoreline against La Fiorita of San Marino.