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Dundalk manager Filippo Giovagnoli will choose the team “100%” for tomorrow night’s Europa League game against Molde, despite being banned from acting as head coach in the match.
Giovagnoli does not have the relevant managerial qualifications and the club was fined € 50,000 as a result of the manager’s “shadow training” in the first games of the group stage. Now he is prevented from sitting in the technical area during UEFA competition.
The last contact the Italian will have with his team will be at the team hotel before they leave, and opposition analyst Shane Keegan will be the interim manager of the game.
And Keegan explained that he will have talked about various scenarios before the game, but it will be the coach who chooses the side.
“I guess they felt it was overdone,” Keegan said at the pregame press conference.
“We will have a team meeting before we cross over to the game venue, but once we are there, he will not be allowed to communicate with us, I think until an hour after the final whistle,” Keegan said. .
“But it won’t differ from how it normally works in the country. Filippo asks Giuseppe and me [Rossi] for our opinions, but it is 100% himself who makes the final decision, as it should be.
“He will make that decision and then we will discuss the various scenarios that could occur during the game.”
Heading into the clash, Keegan expects another tough test from the Norwegians who beat the Lilywhites in their first group game in October.
And Keegan expects Molde to be even better in the return game, with the advantage of playing at home coupled with the fact that they are in good shape in the Norwegian league.
“We are expecting a very, very tough game, without a doubt. Arguably they are in much better shape this time than last.”
“They had some dubious results in the last one, but I think I’m right when I say they’ve won five and drawn a league game since we played them, so they’re really in shape.”
But Keegan feels there were a lot of positives to draw from their home match, where Dundalk led 1-0 at halftime, and believes his team can go head-to-head with the Norwegians again.
“We have to cheer up on two-thirds of our home game performance. I thought we were probably the best team in the first half and we deserved that advantage, but to be fair to them, when they actually turned us around, we couldn’t get out of our half, or our own third to be honest, for about 20-25 minutes of that second half.
“But then we went back to that and most people would agree that we were right to walk out of that game scratching our heads as to why we didn’t have something to show.
“The fact that we went toe-to-toe with them gives us tremendous confidence, and any question marks we have about whether we thought we were good enough to mix with them after the first game, those question marks have been removed. .
“You have to respect them, they are a serious team, but at the same time we have to fully believe that we can go and do something.”
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