Dundalk square off against Slovan Bratislava in the first leg of the Europa League third round qualifier tonight.
The Lilywhites are in Slovakia to face the reigning Slovak league champions.
Dundalk dropped down to the Europa League qualifiers following a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Azerbaijani champions Qarabag in a Champions League second round qualifier.
However, Dundalk will be confident of pulling off a result in tonight’s game despite the recent defeat to Qarabag.
Dundalk are unbeaten in their last five league games and are seven points clear at the top of the League of Ireland with a game in hand.
In addition to this, Dundalk are the seeded side in tonight’s qualifier and have more recent history in the Europa League than do their Slovak counterparts.
Dundalk made it to the group stages of the competition in the 2016-17 season, claiming a memorable home win against Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv and narrowly losing to Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Slovan Bratislava made the Europa League group stages in the 2014-15 season but were comfortably beaten in every game.
Dundalk manager Vinny Perth is taking nothing for granted but believes that the tie is theirs for the taking.
Ahead of the game in Slovakia, Perth said: “They are a top side and we'll need to go up another level to compete, but it's a winnable tie.”
Perth was also pleased to be playing the first leg tie away from home, adding: “We want to be in the playoff stages regularly so it's a challenge to get through but it's worked out well that we are away first against Slovan.”
Should Dundalk progress to the play-off tie for the Europa League they could potentially be drawn against last season’s Champions League semi-finalists Ajax.
The Dutch club face PAOK FC in the Champions League third round qualifier.
The losers of this tie will be pitted against the winners of tonight’s Europa League third round qualifier.
