Tomas Cosgrove: I want to help Larne become first Irish League team to reach European group stage

The Finnish champions carry a slender lead to Solitude for their Champions League first-round qualifying second-leg after an early Bojan Radulovic penalty handed them an advantage, but captain Cosgrove is confident his men are more than capable of competing.

Linfield came within seconds of progressing to the Europa Conference League last season before losing a shootout to RFS at Windsor Park, but Cosgrove admits he wants to be the one that seals that piece of local history.

"You saw Linfield last year and I'll make no bones about it that I was sitting in the house watching it and didn't want them to do it - I want Larne to be the first team to do it because I'm involved in it,” he said. “You want that prize at the end of the day.

"Who knows, if you go through this round that you can't go through another and be guaranteed a place? Anything can happen in these games and it's a massive prize at the end."

Victory against HJK would help ensure they reach at least a Europa Conference League play-off spot later this summer – the same stage as the Blues got to after beating TNS in their Champions League opener – and the fact this return leg is at a venue Cosgrove spent seven years of his senior playing career with Cliftonville adds an extra element to the tie.

"It would be massive (to progress),” he added. “It's a huge honour to be captain of the club and to go on and win the first league title was amazing.

"When I look back on my career I’ll be able to say to my little boys 'I did that'. It will be massive for me to be back at Solitude, captaining the team in the Champions League, one of the first teams to go through if we do it and my little boy will be walking out with me also.

"If you add everything into it, it would be a massive night for me personally but the club as a whole and the financial reward is huge.

"Also for coefficient points - all of the teams did so well last week and the more we can push the league on the better."

Larne have a tremendous home record in European competitions, beating Bala Town, Aarhus and, most impressively of all, Portuguese outfit Paços de Ferreira on their way to the third-round of Europa Conference League qualifying in 2021.

"I'm fully confident we can do it,” said Cosgrove. “There's no point turning up if you think you're going out there to get hammered.

"Hopefully the crowd can get behind us and we can hurt them. We had our chances and were a bit disappointed last week because there were a few half-chances where we could have taken something.

"There wasn't much in the game apart from the penalty. You seen when we played Aarhus what we can do with the crowd behind us and hopefully we can have another magical night like that."