The Hoops are the most successful team in the Republic of Ireland and will come to Stamford Bridge on Thursday 19 December in the final round of league phase games. You can see the rest of Chelsea's Conference League fixtures here.

Factfile

Full name: Shamrock Rovers

Country: Republic of Ireland

Town: Dublin

Formation: 1899

Honours: League of Ireland winners (22 times, most recently 2023), FAI Cup winners (25 times, most recently 2019)

Head coach: Stephen Bradley

2023 league finish: 1st

Stadium: Tallaght Stadium

Colours: Green and white

Rivals: Bohemians, Shelbourne

European record

European Cup/Champions League: Rovers competed in the second edition of the European Cup, in 1957/58, losing a preliminary round tie 9-2 on aggregate to Manchester United. Regular Champions League qualifying participants, they won their first game in the competition against Flora Tallinn in 2011.

UEFA Cup/Europa League: This is the competition Shamrock have most often featured in, playing almost 50 games. Most memorably they reached the Europa League group stage in 2011/12, losing all of their games including two against Tottenham.

Conference League: Shamrock qualified for the group stage in 2022/23, drawing two and losing four of their six games. They held Gent and Djurgardens to draws in Dublin.

2024 so far…

Shamrock sit in sixth place in the table with a quarter of the season remaining. They dropped into the Conference League after losing their Europa League play-off 6-0 on aggregate to PAOK, having earlier won two-legged European ties against Celje and Vikingur Reykjavik.

Current squad

Forward Graham Burke joined Aston Villa as a youngster and has played in England for Shrewsbury, Notts County, Preston North End and Gillingham.

Recent acquisition Marc McNulty has played for Sheffield United, Coventry and Reading, among other teams, while Markus Poom’s father Mart represented Derby and Sunderland with distinction.

Former players

The great Bobby Tambling played a handful of games for Shamrock Rovers in the 1978/79 season. He has lived in Ireland ever since.

Damien Duff, another ex-Blue, played the final nine games of his senior career at Shamrock before announcing his retirement in December 2015.

Paddy Mulligan and John Coady provide further crossover between the two clubs.