TEAM NEWSpublished at 18:19 BST
Derry City v CSKA Sofia (18:30 BST)
Derry City know the scale of the task awaiting them as they welcome CSKA Sofia to the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium for the second leg of their Europa League first qualifying round tie.
James Olayinka’s late header in Bulgaria changed the dynamic for the Candystripes ahead of this evening’s return fixtures after Ioannis Pittas’ double and a screamer from captain Jordao had seemingly put the Bulgarians in control despite Liam Boyce’s first half goal at the Natsionalen Stadion Vasil Levski.
Tiernan Lynch’s side will be hoping they can get the two-goal win they need to progress in front large home support, but their recent form at the Brandywell has been less than impressive with only three wins from their previous nine games.
Recruitments have been brought in during the summer window with Ellis Chapman, Christy Grogan and Nick Twisk all making their debuts in last week’s narrow defeat in Sofia, however latest signing Darragh Burns is ineligible for this game following his switch from Grimsby Town.
Tiernan Lynch makes three changes to the side which suffered defeat in that first leg with Brandon Fleming, Adam O’Reilly and Kevin dos Santos coming in for Rob Slevin, Cameron Dummigan and LIam Boyce, who scored the opener for the Candystripes last week.
The visitors make one change with Dimitar Evitmov replacing Fedor Lapoukhov in goal.
Derry City: Maher, Barr, Grogan, P McClean, Fleming, O’Reilly, Olayinka, Chapman, Cotter, Duffy, dos Santos
Subs: Norcott, Callister, Stott, Slevin, Clarke, J McClean, Doherty, Dummigan, Twisk, Kelly.
CSKA Sofia: Evtimov, Rodigues, Panayotov, T Ivanov, Martino, Sensi, Jordao, Solet, Pastor, Gordoy, Pittas.
Subs: Nikolov, Ouorov, Gbamin, Zwarts, Brahimi, Yordanov, Kaymakanov, Leo Pereira, Piedrhita, Chorbadzhiyski, Tunchev, Eto’o
