Despite the long standing tradition of Irish football, the country has never contributed a team to the group stages of Champions League since the new competition format was introduced. Year after year, we see Irish champions relegated in the early qualifying rounds of the top competitions, but this season, Irish Champions Dundalk have finally made it into the final playoff round, where they are facing Polish Legia Warszawa for the spot in the group stages of the CL.

No matter what happens in this final matchup, Dundalk have already guaranteed themselves a place in the Europa League group stages, an excellent achievement in itself. Still, the local fans will certainly be looking for their boys to make it past the Polish champions and take a shot at the big league.

It was an exciting road for the Irish champions in either case, as they managed to eliminate the champions of Iceland, Hafnarfjordur and the heavily favorited BATE Borisov in the first two qualifying rounds, beating BATE 3 – 0 in a match that will certainly remain recorded in the club history books for many years to come.

Everyone in Ireland was hopeful as Legia finally arrived at the Oriel Park earlier this week, but it was the Polish side that got the better of the hosts, winning 0 – 2 and reducing Dundalk’s chances of making it into the Europe’s elite competition by a significant margin. Nevertheless, Dundalk still gets one more shot at it and there is no doubt that the lads will leave their hearts on the pitch in an attempt to move past the Polish champions on their home turf.

It was the late goal by Prijovic that saw Dundalk’s hopes of advancing diminished but the real question is what can the Irish side do in the Europa League if they are eliminated from the Champions League playoffs. The bookies are giving Dundalk a 7/1 chance of beating Legia away, while their chances of actually making it into the Champions League group stages are much lower than that still. If you are looking to keep a steady eye on all the odds changes, make sure you check out  for detailed and up to date odds on all the upcoming CL playoffs matches.

If the bookies are right and Dunalk is eliminated into the Europa League, it will mean they will get a spot in one of the Europa League groups, where they may easily end up competing against teams much stronger than Legia. In either case, the last year has been a dream come true for the Dundalk fans and they are now set for at least 7 more European matches at this point, three of them taking place at Oriel Park, where Lilywhites will be hosting several of the Europe’s elite no matter what happens on Tuesday night in Warsaw.

Keeping an eye on Dundalk matches is surely the thing all true lovers of the game will be thrilled to do, as there are few things that can excite a true fan more than a small club making it big among the elite teams with much greater budgets. Dundalk is exactly one such side and just as it was a thrill to watch Leicester City take the trophy in England last season or Iceland make it far in the European Championship, watching Dundalk as they continue their European campaign.