TNS looking to press home Euro advantage
The New Saints return to the European stage tonight with head coach Anthony Limbrick and his players looking forward to the second leg of their tie against Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Republic (6pm).
Saints produced an outstanding performance to establish a 4-2 advantage in last Thursday’s Uefa Europa Conference League third qualifying round first leg at the Cardiff City Stadium.
A hat-trick from Declan McManus helped TNS open up a 4-0 lead before their opponents reduced the arrears by scoring two late goals.
Limbrick said: “It’s a good lead that we’ve got going into the game. I thought we had a great performance last Thursday at Cardiff. To have scored four goals against a team with that quality of opposition, I think says how far we’ve come and where we are at the moment.
“We’re really looking forward to the game. It’s going to be a huge test and they’re going to have a lot of fans there.
“They’re going to be putting us right under pressure, but that’s why we come to TNS, I think, players and staff, so, yes, we can’t wait. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Saints have produced excellent performances throughout their European campaign, beating Glentoran from Northern Ireland in the first round, before enjoying an impressive 10-1 aggregate success against Lithuanian club Kauno Zalgiris.
The Park Hall side, who will begin their JD Cymru Premier season at Newtown on Sunday, took their goal tally in the Uefa Europa Conference League to 17 in five games by finding the net four times against Viktoria Plzen.
“We’ve been creating the chances in the earlier games as well,” said Limbrick. “We scored one in the first, two in the second, then five, five and four most recently.
“I feel like there’s all different goals in the team as well, not just from the forwards, but from set plays.
“There’s a threat for us from midfielders running late into the box and on the counter attack, so there’s all different ways that we’re scoring at the minute.
“We feel that if we can score away from home in this next tie then that will really set us up.”
Limbrick expects Viktoria Plzen, who beat Roma 2-1 and lost to Real Madrid by the same scoreline in the group stages of the Champions League in the 2018-19 season, to look to put early pressure on the Saints tonight.
He added: “They are a very good side, they’ve got a lot of attacking threats, some really good midfielders that run beyond and get in the box well, and two six-foot-six, six-foot-seven strikers. They’ll be looking to get the crowd right on their side and they’ll be looking to put the ball in the box.
“They cross it a lot and get it into the dangerous areas, so I think they’ll be looking to do that and get their fans right behind them and they’ll be looking to try and score early for sure, I think, and then put the pressure on us.”
