Glamour tie with Copenhagen extra motivation for Derry City says Ruaidhri Higgins

​The Danish outfit who reached the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League last season had THREE of their current team playing at this summer's European Championships in Germany.

Scottish defender Scott McKenna, Denis Vavro (Slovakia) and Elias Jelert (Denmark) have all made the squads of their respective countries which emphasises the size of the task which faces the winner of Derry's first round tie against the Magpies.

Copenhagen are littered with some of Europe's top talent and also feature the son of Celtic and Sweden legend Henrick Laarson and the younger brother of Man United striker Rasmus Hojlund.

The prospect of the Danes, who defeated Man United 4-3 in the group stages of last year's Champions League, coming to Brandywell Stadium certainly whets the appetite for local football fans.

And while Higgins knows it would be a stellar occasion for the Candy Stripes to test themselves at the highest level, the Limavady man is careful not to overlook the challenge of Bruno's Magpies who they meet in the first leg of the first round qualifier on July 11th next.

"They're a giant of a football club, last 16 of the Champions League last year and to be honest it's why we're in the game," said Higgins about the prospect of meeting Copenhagen.

"And if you can't get excited about that and if that can't motivate you to try and go through the first round, which as I said will be a difficult task. If that doesn't motivate you then you're in the wrong game and it’s mouth-watering really but we have a lot of work to do to get to that point. We have to prepare properly and do our homework and give Magpies the respect they deserve.”

Paris St Germain, Benfica, Gothenburg are among the standout visitors to Foyleside for European fixtures in the past and Higgins believes the arrival of the Danish outfit would be on a different level.

“It's another level from that [Gothenburg]. Someone told me the other day that their back three were all playing in the Euros at the minute, I think there's more than that but we'll worry about that if we do our business right against Magpies.

"And it's really, really important not to get ahead of ourselves because, as I said, when you play in this level of competition teams are well coached, well drilled, well organized.

"We're not good enough to turn our nose up at anybody so we'll treat them with the respect they deserve and if we perform we know we can win but if we don't perform we know we can get turned over. So we have to do the right thing and be really, really professional.

“So absolutely, there'll be no talk of what potentially could come after; we’ve a job to do and it's not a foregone conclusion. We have to prepare properly and do our homework as we always do and we will. Hopefully we can have the quality to go through the round but at that level of competition, nothing's ever handed to you.”

Bruno's Magpies were eliminated from the Conference League by Irish opposition in their previous two campaigns as Crusaders and Dundalk edged them out in 2022 and 2023.

Higgins' coaching team have already been in touch with both clubs to ensure there's no stone left unturned in preparation.

“There'll be a turnaround in their squad, they've made some signings recently, obviously we have two big, big league games before we come to that but we've started doing our homework and hopefully either myself or Gerard Boyle will get our eyes on them over the next week to ten days and take it from there.

"We've enough staff to delegate and do different jobs so we're on it and it's important that you do that. You need to know every single bit of information and fortunately I've had plenty of experience through my time with Dundalk and Ireland and now at Derry of playing abroad so the homework needs to go into it.

"There'll be no stone left unturned I can guarantee that but we just need to approach it in the right manner and try and continue our league form going into it.”

It'll be Higgins' fifth different European opponent as Derry City manager but the 39 year-old has no shortage of experience playing, coaching and scouting teams on the continent during his time with both Derry and Dundalk.

He believes those experiences will stand to him as he prepares for his third successive season in European competition.

"I've had an unbelievable amount of experience, I was at Dundalk 2017, 2018, 2019, involved in European competition every year, I was involved in Ireland for some Nations League games and stuff like that and since I came back here it's my third year involved in European football.

"For a young enough manager, I've loads of experience at that level fortunately and I don't take it for granted. It's amazing to be a part of and it's a privilege to be leading it and hopefully we can do our city proud again.”

And after last year's arduous trip to Kazakhstan where they played Tobol in the soaring heat, Higgins is delighted the first round qualifier is a lot easier logistically.

“Well that was an interesting experience, brilliant experience at the same time but listen, we're in football for these moments and they play in these types of competitions.

“First of all you're always looking at the logistics and the travel and then types of things and I think our supporters will enjoy that one; you can get into Malaga and then it's a bus trip, there's loads of flights into Malaga, all those sorts of things so you're thinking of supporters and that type of thing and hopefully we travel in good numbers. I'm not sure about the ticket allocation but we've brilliant support and they love the European experience and hopefully we can all enjoy it together.

"I think last year will be really beneficial. We came into our own around this time last year, thankfully we've come into our own a wee bit earlier over the last few weeks and we need to continue that.

"As I said if we can add one or two to the group that we already have to give us that extra boost then we'll be in a good place and I think it's really exciting, it's a mouth-watering time of the year.

"You've got European competition, we're in a half decent position in the league and you've got the FAI Cup coming up as well so it's a brilliant time to be involved in football and it's really important that we represent our country and the league in the best possible manner when we go into Europe like we did last year.

"We should have been in a play-off last year which still kills me to this day but aye we'll crack on and have another go at it.”

Magpies have allocated 200 tickets for Derry City fans and are pushing to have the first leg tie played at an earlier kick-off time which would mean playing in temperatures hitting 30 degrees.

“Well if that's the case you've got to, whatever hand you're dealt you have to deal with it and we'll do that. It's a shame if we can't get all our supporters in that want to go. That would be a shame but we're professionals, we have a job to do and we'll go there and try to do it to the best of our ability and hopefully over the next few league games we can continue the form that we're in and take it into the European competition.

“They play their home games at half seven and nine o'clock local time normally so I don't see why it should be any different. If they want to play games then…if they want to go about it that way then that's no problem."