Alan Mannus has warned that there will be no easy games for Shamrock Rovers in the Europa Conference League - despite the Hoops dodging some of the competition's bigger guns.
Rovers will face Belgian side KAA Gent, Molde from Norway and Swedish giants Djurgardens in Group F.
But they could have been paired with the likes of West Ham, Villarreal, Koln and Fiorentina.
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The veteran goalkeeper reacted to the draw, saying: “Obviously at this stage of the competition you are not going to get any easy games, even more so getting into the group stages.
“The further you get the harder it becomes. So it was always going to be a draw where we were going to get good teams.
“We have Gent, a very big team, and the other teams are obviously big teams as well. They are going to be tough enough games for us.
“You are guaranteed to get one big team at least, with the way the draw works, and we got Gent.
“They are a big team, a very good team. They are a well-known team. That is going to be a very difficult tie for us.
“As for the other teams, we’ve played against Swedish and Norwegian teams in the last few years and we have done well against them. So we have that bit of experience.
“We know we can give any team in Europe a tough game, especially in Tallaght, regardless of who they are or how good they are.
“We have a good record at home this season in Europe and we want to keep that going, regardless of who we play.
“We obviously have a lot of respect for all the teams we will play against, but we still will give them a good game and we will be playing to get points, not just to be there.
“Also at the same time I’m sure all three teams will be thinking they can get points off us as well. We are very much aware of that as well.”
The Europa League match days are: September 8, September 15, October 6, October 13, October 27 and November 3.
UEFA has yet to confirm the order in which Rovers will play their three opponents.
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