Champions League/Apollon Limassol (0) v Cork City (1) Nicosia, kick-off 7.0pm On TV: RTÉ 2: Cork City manager Damien Richardson made a strong case for his side's defence in Cyprus yesterday - even if it was mixed with a dash of friendly banter.
The Leesiders face Apollon Limassol in the return leg of their Champions League qualifier in Nicosia tonight and both Alan Bennett and Dan Murray's confidence will be buoyed as their manager pinpointed a quality that is found in all the iconic centre halves.
"I have the two ugliest centre-halves in Ireland which is always great," he joked, much to the bemusement of the small Cypriot press core. The City boss elaborated, saying his two defensive linchpins had put Cork in a strong position in the tie by keeping Apollon scoreless at Turner's Cross last week. But defending would not be his team's only ploy for tonight's match.
"All good teams have good defences," he said. "All the great teams have good defences and good attacks. The great and successful teams have a good defence, good midfield and good attack. We are a great team.
"In European football scoring away from home is extremely important, hence I was very pleased last week that we won the game without conceding a goal, but we will not be just defending. If we get a goal it puts us in a very strong position."
In Bennett and Murray, Cork have two players that are well acquainted and who form central cover for a very settled defensive unit. "We've been playing for three or four years now and you get to understand each other in games so much better," said Cork captain Murray.
"It helps that we have had pretty much the same two full-backs as well and the same goalkeeper. A solid back five, that's what we have based a lot of our success on probably. If the opposition can't get past our back five then we feel we have a great chance of scoring goals with everyone else that is in front of us."
Tonight's game takes place at the GSP stadium, the scene of Ireland's lacklustre 1-0 win against Cyprus last October. Richardson believes that may help Cork.
"I'm happy not playing Apollon in Limassol," said Richardson. "That might be a factor in the game. In Europe it is very important to play you're home game at home. Last season Djurgardens in Sweden couldn't play in their home ground, they had to go to the national stadium and that may be a deficiency."
George O'Callaghan did not travel with Cork and his days at City look to be at an end. John O'Flynn did travel, but the chances of his involvement are minimal as he is still struggling with an abductor muscle injury.
