IT'S CUSTOMARY to say, after Irish soccer clubs lose a home game against European opposition, that they have a "mountain to climb" in the second leg.
And sure enough, Shamrock Rovers will have to cross not just a mountain, but the entire Alps, next week when they visit Italy for the return game of their Europa League qualifier against Juventus. Oh, and they have a 2-0 deficit as well.
Uncowed by the cosy six-thousand-seater stadium, set in a modern town centre that could easily have been somewhere in Piedmont, Juventus must have taken further heart from the news that the game was being sponsored by the Irish Traditional Italian Chippers Association.
The chip-shop welcome was further extended within three minutes of kick-off. Except that, suddenly, it wasn't so much a one-and-one situation, as a one-on-one: when the visitors Brazilian striker Amauri pounced on an error to slide the ball past Rovers keeper Alan Mannus.
It was a nightmare start for the home team, and supporters must have feared that, in traditional chipper terminology, they were in for a battering.
Instead they rallied bravely and had one of two chances to equalise before, mid-way through the second half, Amauri struck again. Any hope of a result was gone then. And the fans could only console themselves that at least they weren't losing to their arch-enemies - the team that most of their insults were aimed at, even last night - Bohemians.
With some top players injured, and veteran stars Del Piero and Trezeguet starting on the bench, the Italian aristocrats had a less than familiar look. A point the Rovers support seemed to make when they welcomed their illustrious visitors with the chant: "Who are ya?" Mind you, they had made the same inquiry last summer when Real Madrid and Christiano Ronaldo came to town.
And on this occasion, familiarity soon dawned. When a Juventus player indulged in gamesmanship, the fans suddenly seemed to remember the match-fixing scandal that saw the Turin giants thrown of Italy's top division four years ago. "Same old Juv-e/Always cheating," they sang.
In due course, Del Piero did join the party and went close to making it 3-0: a climb for which Rovers would have needed the ski-lift next week. Even 2-0 probably leaves the task beyond them. But then this was a game the Dublin club couldn't really lose. With €300,000 profit, its finances were as black-and-white as the visitors' famous strip.
Rovers die-hards still hoping for a miracle may take comfort in the fact that the return leg is in Modena, not Turin. This is because Juve's own stadium is unavailable, due to a prior booking for a U2 concert.
Besides, the only song they were singing on the way home last night was not one of Bono's. It was a philosophical number, the one that goes: "Whatever will be will be/We're going to Ital-ee/Que sera, sera."