Team News – Home vs Floriana – 14-07-2026
Tickets remain on sale for this vital Champions League Qualifying Round 1 second leg tie. With the Hoops seeking to overturn a two goal deficit, manager Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie
We suffered a two nil away defeat to Floriana in the first qualifying round of this year’s Champions League. It was a very disappointing result.
“Yes, it was. There’s no point in shying away from it or saying anything different. It was a disappointing result for us. But the main thing is coming out of it is we understood it, understood why and as a group, make sure it doesn’t happen again. It happened, it’s life, it’s football and sometimes it happens. We were in control of the game for large parts but we were sloppy in moments and it cost us.”
You had said Floriana changed much of their squad recently. Was their style of play and performance as you expected?
“Yes, it was. They played like they do, their identity is clear. They played like they did last year, albeit with a few different players. Their gameplan worked, we were sloppy and allowed them to capitalise and they did.”
You handed Luke O’Regan his Rovers debut as sub last week. How do you think he did and what can we expect him to bring to this Rovers team having returned from a loan spell at UCD?
“I thought Luke did well. It was a difficult one for him coming on when we were down to ten men, but I thought he showed what he’ll bring to the group. We’re looking forward to getting Luke going now with the group. He has played a lot with UCD so he’s up to speed in that regard, been training with us. He’s ready to go and I really like what Luke’s game is and we’ll see that over the next while with us. He’s an exciting prospect for us.”
So we have a lot of work to do in order to make up the deficit. It is not beyond us however and the return of Pico Lopes should give everyone, players, staff and fans a boost.
“It’s not beyond us for sure. But we know we need to be a lot better than we were last week. If we want to give ourselves a chance to win the game, we have to be. So it’s definitely not beyond us, we have experience and know how and Pico’s back in the group, which is great. But we know we need to be better than what we were last week.”
What’s our injury situation or is anyone else unavailable?
“Matt Healy is suspended for tomorrow. Danny Grant, Dan Cleary, Danny Mandroiu and Victor Ozhianvuna remain out injured. Victor is still a few weeks away but we’re getting there with him and other than that we are ok”.
