Shamrock, Rabotnicki eye Juve, Liverpool shocks

Shamrock Rovers of Ireland and Macedonia’s Rabotnicki set-up money-spinning Europa League ties against former European champions Juventus and Liverpool respectively Thursday.

Juventus will head to Dublin next week for the third qualifying round tie to face Shamrock, who triumphed 1-0 against Bnei Yehuda in humid Tel-Aviv to prevail 2-1 over two legs.

Thomas Stewart scored the only goal 20 minutes from the end.

“It’s something wonderful for our fans and players to play against them at our home stadium and in Italy,” Shamrock boss Michael O’Neill told www.uefa.com.

“We will try to do our best against Juventus and maybe the luck will be with us.”

Rabotnicki won their opener against FC Mika 1-0 last week and booked a dream clash with Liverpool by battling to a goalless draw in the return leg in Armenia on Thursday.

“We played very bravely,” said coach Zoran Stratev. “We ensured that football fans in Skopje can see one of the best clubs in the world next week.

“This is a great success for Rabotnicki and for Macedonian football. We know that even in Skopje Liverpool are 99 percent likely to win, but I can promise that we will do ourselves justice.”