LITTLE-KNOWN La Fiorita of San Marino plan to gate-crash Linfield’s Champions League party by knocking the Irish League champions out of contention and going forward to face Celtic.
For 89 minutes of last week’s first leg, it looked as though La Fiorita were halfway there before Linfield’s new signing Jordan Stewart popped up with a late winner to give the Blues a precious first leg advantage.
While Linfield fans would relish the chance to face Celtic in the Champions League, La Fiorita manager Nicola Berardi says it’s his club’s “dream” to play the Scottish Premier League champions.
“For La Fiorita it would be a dream to play Celtic and we will give it our best. We are feeling good about the game,” said Berardi.
“At home we are strong and I'm confident my players will approach the game well.”
The home side’s bullish attitude and the high temperatures gives La Fiorita a decent chance of overturning the one-goal deficit from the first leg in Windsor Park.
“It's good that we are playing the game at 8.30pm local time as the temperature might have caused us a bit of an issue had it been earlier in the day," said Linfield manager David Healy.
“I can see an eagerness and a hunger among the players to get us into the next round and the trip also offers them a chance to sample something different and get to know each other better."
Jimmy Callacher is ruled out through injury as the central defender missed the first leg with a hernia problem which would also see him miss the Celtic tie should the Irish League champions progress.
“We will require constant effort in our play right to the 90th minute and that never-say-die attitude that this club is famous for,” added Healy.
“There was no shortage of fitness or effort from the players last week - just sometimes our final pass let us down. You have to expect that as it was our first competitive game of the season.
“We know what they are good at and we will try to expose some of the weaknesses we saw last week.”
Healy, though, insisted that the Blues wouldn’t be ‘parking the bus’ in a bid to protect their slender advantage.
“We are not going to pack bodies behind the ball. We just need to be organised and do our jobs professionally.”
Linfield’s hosts have failed to win any of their 11 games in European competition but Berardi's side might feel this is their best chance of success on the European stage.
La Fiorita don’t concede many goals and bring a three-match winning streak into this two-legged encounter with the south Belfast club.
Healy has travelled with a 19-man squad as a precaution even though he is able to name only 18 players in his match-day squad.
Progression to a money-spinning second qualifying round tie against Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side could earn the Irish Premiership winners up to £1 million in Uefa prize money, gate receipts, television revenue and advertising.
