No shame, it's football says NK Maribor Head Coach

The Bannsiders were massive underdogs going into the tie against the Purples, who are European regulars and are the only Slovenian team to have played in the group stages of the Champions League.

With only one European away win in the club's history, a 3-2 victory at Kilmarnock in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup back in 1970, the odds looked massively stacked against Oran Kearney's men.

But what we've learned in the recent past is that you write them off at your peril.

Kearney has moulded a team which is not only full of quality, but they are prepared to put in the hard yards as we witnessed over 120 minutes on Thursday night.

And then to have the mental strength to take penalties after their disappointment in the Irish Cup semi final last month, it really was an unbelievable effort!

Speaking after the game Maribor Head Coach Sergej Jakirović there was no shame in losing to the Bannsiders.

"I'm disappointed because we knew exactly how the opponent would play," he said.

"What does shame mean? It's football, an unpredictable game, so it's also the best game.

"You can write about shame, but the next day we move on, life hasn't stopped. we’re learning.

"What’s going to be like tomorrow, we’ll see.It’s not the same when you play prep games and everything looks great, it can be misleading.

"I’m very critical of myself, I’ve probably made a mistake in some things, but that remains for analysis, we all need to sleep.

"In many situations we should show more masculinity, taking risks.If you play for Maribor, I think you deserve to be here and have quality.We lost in the new competition system, before the match I warned that anything is possible that you can favourites fall out easily."

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