Chelsea vs Shamrock Rovers: UEFA Conference League – scores & text updates

Chelsea vs Shamrock Rovers: UEFA Conference League – scores & text updates
Chelsea vs Shamrock Rovers: UEFA Conference League – scores & text updates

Jonathan Bradley
BBC Sport NI Journalist

More recently, Rovers’ reward for becoming the first Irish side to make the Europa League group stages in 2011-12 was a pairing with Chelsea’s London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Goalkeeper Richard Brush had been out of football after suffering a wrist injury with previous club Sligo Rovers when he got the call to join the Hoops’ European charge that season.

“I was going from being without a club to being thrown into Shamrock Rovers in the title race and at that stage in the Champions League qualifiers. I went from not having a club straight into the middle of this massive juggernaut of a run,” he said.

“It was going into the unknown after a long injury and then being thrown into what was the biggest achievement in Irish football at the time.

“I remember the texts going round, sort of like, ‘are you taking the mick, we’ve got Spurs?’ It was huge for us.”

Playing their first competitive game against English opposition since that trip to Old Trafford 54 years prior, Brush was in inspired form to deny Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko before Stephen Rice put the visitors into a shock lead.

Spurs, though, turned the game with three goals in six second-half minutes.

Belgium

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