Cliftonville boss Paddy McLaughlin has urged his players to be positive in tonight’s Europa League tie with FK Haugesund at Solitude.
Norwegian full-timers Haugesund, who hammered Coleraine 7-0 on aggregate in the same competition two years ago, are odds on favourites to progress.
The North Belfast Reds booked their place in the first qualifying round with a 4-0 aggregate victory over Barry Town United.
And McLaughlin hopes his players can continue from where they left off in last week's resounding win at Solitude.
"I think for a long time Irish League clubs were just happy to qualify for Europe," he said.
"But I think we need to raise the bar and start trying to progress through a few rounds.
"Obviously our league has lost a Europa League spot from the 2020/21 season so it is going to be even harder to qualify.
"We worked so hard to get here that we want to make the most of it. We don't want to go out early and accept defeat."
Reflecting on last week's 4-0 win over Barry Town at Solitude, McLaughlin added: "It was a solid performance.
"We were patient in our build-up, and when we got in dangerous positions we made it count.
"There were a lot of good performances, and hopefully we can continue that into the Haugesund tie."
Betting odds
Cliftonville 15/4
Haugesund 13/20
Draw 3/1
Keep up-to-date with all the very latest news, what's on, sport and everything else in Belfast and beyond with the Belfast Live app.
Only select news that interests you by picking the topics you want to display on the app's homepage. Plus, our enhanced user experience includes live blogs, video, interactive maps and slick picture galleries. Download it now and get involved.
Click here to get it from the App Store or here for Google Play .
