Motherwell: Gallagher dreaming of Europa League groups
- Published
Motherwell captain Declan Gallagher believes his side can upset Hapoel Beer Sheva.
Motherwell are already "dreaming" of the "massive" achievement of qualifying for the Europa League, says captain Declan Gallagher.
Despite just two league wins this term, the Scottish Premiership side are only a pair of vicories away from the group stages of Europe's second competition.
Glentoran and Coleraine have already been beaten in qualifying, with Hapoel Beer Sheva up next week in Israel.
"You have to dream. Everything is a dream in football, said Gallagher.
"Probably a lot of people said last season that Motherwell getting to third place and into Europe was a dream.
"You have to keep dreaming. Without ambition, there's no point in football. We have to be ambitious, believe in ourselves to go over to Israel and get a result.
"We will be the underdog but hopefully that works in our favour."
Motherwell have had to do things the hard way to get this far in qualifying. While Glentoran were eventually battered 5-1 at Fir Park, it took the visitors going down to 10 men for the floodgates to open.
And their safe passage beyond Coleraine was largely owed to the heroics of Trevor Carson, who made a hat-trick of saves in a penalty shootout at The Showgrounds to claim victory following a nervy 2-2 draw with the Scots down to 10 men for extra-time.
"I have seen a lot of people say our performance was poor," said the centre-half, whose side will host either Viktoria Plzen or Sonderjyske if they win in Israel on Thursday.
"The first half we dominated the game and should have probably been out of sight. But they got two soft penalty claims and that would change any game regardless of the opposition and the standard of the pitch.
"To go down to 10 men and show the character we did, I think we deserve a wee bit more respect for how we got through that game in the end.
"It's a knockout competition and all that matters is you get through to the next round. Performances don't matter if you win the game.
"It would be massive for the club financially and also for the reputation of Scottish football to get someone other than Rangers or Celtic into a European competition. It would change how people see Scottish football if we made it."