‘We need to put in some big performances over the next two weeks’ – Watts and Shamrock Rovers have focus on Europe
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley and Dylan Watts
Dylan Watts has called for a big performance from his Shamrock Rovers side in their Champions League battle in Iceland tomorrow to atone for last season’s disappointments in the same competition.
Rovers went into their European campaign off the back of a morale-boosting league win over Dundalk last week, and the panel will fly out to Reykjavik on Monday to prepare for Tuesday’s game against Vikingur, the first leg of their first round tie. Rovers were in Iceland 12 months ago but lost out to Breidablik, a tie that’s still in the mind of midfielder Watts.
“We let ourselves down in those two games last year, there can be no beating around the bush, especially here [Dublin] in the first leg. Then obviously the second leg was kind of tough to claw back. We need to put in some big performances over the next two weeks” Watts said.
"I’ve been lucky enough to have played quite a lot in Europe over the years and I do really enjoy them. It’s important that we put in a performance over these next two games and hopefully go on a little run in Europe.
“I think you can always learn lessons from these European games. Every team is completely different. They are technically good and set up in different ways. I’m sure we’ll watch a lot of videos of them over the next few days and we’ll have a game plan over there,” added Watts, who had his first taste of European action aged 18, with UCD.
"You are obviously not playing these teams on a regular basis so you have to adapt to how they play. Sometimes it’s very technical and tactical as well. I really enjoy playing in them. You are up against a different side and how they play. They are challenging, obviously, and you come up against some really good sides which we have in the last few years. I really relish them,” added Watts, who played a role in the win over Dundalk with an assist for Johnny Kenny.
“It was massive. We knew coming into the week that we needed the three points no matter what. We were under a little bit of pressure for the last half an hour, but thankfully we got the three points in the end," he said.
Vikingur had a weekend off from league duty to focus on the European tie though they did need extra time to win a cup game in midweek last week, Iceland’s champions unbeaten in 12 games.
