Northern Ireland international Niall McGinn still loves big European occasions as Glentoran look to seal Europa Conference League progression

Warren Feeney’s side welcome Gzira United to The Oval for the second-leg of their first-round qualifying tie, which is finely poised after a positive 2-2 draw in Malta last week thanks to goals from Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe and Daire O’Connor.

No stranger to European competitions, tonight will mark McGinn’s 36th club game in Europe – a run that started in 2006 in Dungannon and has also included a Europa League campaign with Celtic and many qualifying attempts at Aberdeen.

That experience could be crucial in what is a crunch clash for the Glens, who if they make it through will set up a second-round date with either League of Ireland outfit St Patrick’s Athletic or F91 Dudelange from Luxembourg, but McGinn isn’t looking beyond Gzira.

"I love it,” he said. “I've played a lot of European football in my career at Aberdeen and even at Celtic, so I love these games.

"It makes all that running in early pre-season and coming back early all worthwhile that you're playing competitive games at this stage of the season. You're playing for something and at the end of the day every player wants the opportunity to play European football.

"It allows you to travel to different countries, play against good teams and pride yourself against the best.

"It would be massive (to progress). It'll be difficult but if you gain a bit of momentum and confidence in games and we're being ruthless and trying to keep clean sheets, it'll give us every opportunity to go on and try to get through a couple of rounds.

"It will be difficult and we can't look too far ahead. We've got a very important game and that's what we're concentrating on."

Fuad Sule could have an important role to play in any potential Glentoran progression after making an impressive debut in the second-half last week following his arrival earlier this month.

Northern Ireland international McGinn has been impressed by the early impact of both Sule and winger O’Connor, and feels the club have recruited smartly by also bringing in the likes of Josh Kelly from Ballymena United.

"Sule controls the whole midfield and attacking players,” he added. “He's very vocal which helps and when you're vocal on the pitch it sends out good messages to players, whether it's simple things like taking time on the ball or speeding it up.

"Daire came in and did very well with setting up the first and scoring his goal. All in all we're very pleased with how quickly the boys have settled in.

"It's a very strong squad and we've recruited well. We haven't recruited a lot of players but recruited well and built on the squad that we had last season."

McGinn is anticipating an even tougher test this time around than the one they faced in 33-degree heat last week, but says they’ll take the game to their opposition.

"Our game plan was to press higher at times but it was impossible to do that so we'll probably work on pressing higher, winning the ball back and attacking them more,” he said. “They didn't trouble us too much but they are still a good side with decent individuals.

"We know this will probably end up being a harder game than last Thursday.

"A lot of it comes down to how we prepare and play out of possession to nullify their threat, which is probably a lot of counter-attacking and getting their dangerous players on the ball.

"It’s going to be tough but we're looking forward to it and it's all to play for."