Tiny Irish club Dundalk will be aiming to create Champions League history ahead of their playoff tie against Polish giants Legia Warsaw at the AVIVA Stadium.
No Irish club have ever reached the group stages of the Champions League and Dundalk are just two games away from creating history after upsetting Belarussian champions BATE Borisov in the third qualifying round. Stephen Kenny’s side overturned a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to register a famous 3-0 triumph in the return leg.
The win over BATE (who have previously played the likes of Barcelona and Bayern in the Champions League) has guaranteed Dundalk £4m in prize money, with the potential of a further £8m likely to come into the club’s coffers if they get past Legia. To put that amount in perspective, Dundalk earned just over £90,000 in prize money for winning the Airtricity League last season.