Derry City manager Ruaidhri Higgins
The concession of two goals in Gibraltar from set-piece deliveries puts them up against it massively.
This will be Magpies’ third European campaign and they have yet to progress in a tie. History awaits them if they can pull off the shock.
There is no doubt Derry have the goalscoring talents. Their current form is a major concern.
As well as losing in Europe, they have slipped three points off the top after going down to a 2-1 defeat in Sligo.
No Irish side has come back from a two-goal deficit in Europe, so that is the size of the task for Derry.
Manager Ruaidhri Higgins sees more desire within his players this week.
“If training this week is anything to go by, the hunger in people’s eyes, seeing people wanting to put things right makes me think we’ll be okay.
“I don’t see it as a chance to break a record or anything, it’s not one to really be proud of, seeing as we lost 2-0. We have a job to do. We know where we went wrong last week.
“We’ll use the fuel to energise us and go out and put in an unbelievably courageous and committed performance because we all know we let people down, we let ourselves down and we now have a real opportunity to put that right.
“We now have an opportunity to put it right. I don’t think we were good enough, I don’t think we’ve done anything to underestimate anybody, that wasn’t the case. But we underperformed and we have to take that on the chin and fight back.”
This will be Magpies’ third European campaign, with them coincidentally having only played clubs from the island of Ireland previously.
Two seasons ago they beat Crusaders in the first leg on the Rock, only to lose 3-1 in Belfast. They held Dundalk at home last season, before also losing 3-1 at Oriel Park.
While they need goals, and have a history of memorable occasions in the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Higgins has cautioned Derry on not going for the jugular from the opening seconds.
“We’ve seen how special European nights can be in the Brandywell, and we need them to get right behind us from minute one.
“There is no doubt that we can score goals but we also have to be very mindful that we’re set up right behind the ball when we’re attacking, because they’ve got threats as well.
“We can’t just go gung-ho, we have to attack but with a certain amount of discipline as well, commit bodies forward but be mindful that they have one or two threats on the counter attack.”
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