The New Saints head coach Craig Harrison cannot wait for Panathinaikos tie

Craig Harrison is relishing the opportunity to go head-to-head with Greek giants Panathinaikos as The New Saints attempt to lift themselves up the Conference League table.

The sides meet at the New Meadow on Thursday evening with the Welsh champions sitting in 29th place, five below the 1971 European Cup finalists, who occupy the final unseeded play-off berth having collected one point more than their opponents.

Challenge

Head coach Harrison told the Football Association of Wales’ official website: “It will be an extremely tough game and we are under no illusions as to the size of the challenge we face against one of European football’s top sides.

“This is the level we have worked so hard to get to and these are the games we want to be involved in as a club.”

The New Saints have taken three points from a home victory over Astana and will hope to add to that tally against the Greeks before heading for Slovenia and their final group-stage fixture at Celje.

History

New Larne boss Nathan Rooney is hoping his side can break their duck against Belarusian champions Dinamo Minsk after already making history this season.

The Inver Reds are the first club from Northern Ireland to make it to the group stage of a European competition, but are yet to open their account after defeats by Molde, Shamrock Rovers, St Gallen and Olimpija Ljubljana.

That is a situation they hope to rectify when they face Dinamo, who are also pointless, on the neutral territory in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, where something has to give.

Rooney, whose appointment was announced on November 25, told the Belfast News Letter: “We want to be competitive. We still have areas of history we can achieve with gaining points in Europe.”

League of Ireland counterparts Shamrock Rovers face a very different challenge as they warm up for next week’s mouth-watering trip to Premier League Chelsea by welcoming Bosnian champions Borac Banja Luka to Tallaght Stadium.

Knockout stages

Unbeaten Rovers, whose domestic season ended last month, have one foot in the knockout stage after victories over Larne and The New Saints and draws with APOEL Nicosia and Rapid Vienna, and manager Stephen Bradley knows how valuable another win could be.

Bradley told the club’s official website: “There’s no doubt this will be a tough game, but if we can get close to a full stadium tomorrow, get them behind us, we can win the game and see where that takes us in terms of automatic qualification.

“It will be really tight, but it gives us a hell of a chance if we can do it.”