The New Saints aiming to give good account in Champions League second leg
Captain Danny Redmond wants The New Saints to give a good account of themselves in tonight’s Champions League return against Ferencvaros (7pm).
Saints kick off tonight’s match at Park Hall with it all to do against the Hungarian champions after last Tuesday’s 5-0 defeat in Budapest.
Saints conceded three times in 10 minutes just before the midway point of the first half, with the hosts, who have won the league in Hungary for the last six seasons, adding two further goals after the break.
Mali international winger Adama Traore led the way with a hat-trick on a challenging night for TNS.
Redmond said: “We know the type of players they have, some unbelievable players and a great team.
“But going home we’ve got a good record ourselves and hope we make a good account of ourselves.”
Reflecting on last week’s first leg of the second qualifying round tie, Redmond added: “We’re very disappointed but we know the calibre of players that they have.
“We knew it was going to be tough. I thought the lads did well, worked hard, but obviously we’re disappointed with the goals. I think we had a few chances ourselves that we could have took on another day, but we’ve got to recover properly now and go again.”
Much of the damage to the Oswestry side’s hopes of further Champions League progress was inflicted by the three goals Ferencvaros scored in quick succession in the first half.
Redmond said: “When you concede you want to try and keep it as tight as you can for the next five or 10 minutes and unfortunately we didn’t do that. There’s things we need to learn from and take it on board going forward.”
Saints were 3-0 winners over Montenegrin champions FK Decic on their last home appearance in Europe earlier this month.
The winners of tonight’s tie, with Ferencvaros firmly in control, will go on to meet Andorran champions UE Santa Coloma or Danish champions FC Midtjylland in the third qualifying round.
The losers of the tie will drop into the Europa League at the third qualifying round stage to play the losers of the Champions League second qualifying round tie between Cypriot league winners APOEL or Moldovan champions FC Petrocub.
