Rapid Vienna boss claims Shamrock Rovers see themselves as the Manchester City of Ireland

Shamrock Rovers fancy themselves as the Manchester City of the League of Ireland.

At least that’s according to Rapid Vienna boss Robert Klauß ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League league phase clash here in Austria.

The Hoops are bidding to become the first Irish club to reach the knockout stages of a European competition and have made a solid start with seven points from three games.

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But Rapid will be formidable opponents having won all three of their league phase games to date against Petrocub, Noah and İstanbul Başakşehir.

Quizzed on Rovers today, Rapid manager Klauß said: “They are different from a team I would expect from Ireland.

“When you look at Ireland or Northern Ireland or other countries, they play a lot of what we would expect, that style of play, vertical, going for second balls or set pieces or all of the things we think.

“They speak about themselves as the Man City of Ireland, they want to be them. You can tell if you see them playing, they try and they achieve a lot of these things.

“Even the formation, but also how they build up and progress into the last third and create goalscoring opportunities, it's kind of special. They are just like us, they want to play football.”

Klauß continued: “We are playing a team that is one of the bests in their own league, they have won many titles. You cannot compare the two teams.

“They have a very good ball circulation, they have a lot of control, they have many players in the midfield. They practice a lot of small passes.

“They are one of the best teams and when you face teams that are representatives of European football. You have to stay focused.”

Rapid Vienna also wear green and white jerseys but midfielder Lukas Grgic said: “We are going to wear our green and white jerseys, our opponent is not going to do that.”

Grgic added: “We are undefeated so that gives us a certain self confidence but we’re going to stay focused.”

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