Dundalk discovered their Europa League group stage fate on Friday afternoon.
The Irish champions narrowly missed out on qualification for the Champions League group stages, and had to settle for a place in the continent’s second most prestigious club competition.
Stephen Kenny’s side will battle it out with Zenit St Petersburg of Russia, AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands and Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Reacting to the news that they will face Dundalk, Zenit reacted to the draw by tweeting a Gif of an angry leprechaun – a mythical creature that was once associated with derogatory stereotypes of Ireland.
Here’s a screenshot of the deleted tweet:
Zenit St Petersburg tweeted this (and deleted it) in reply to their Dundalk draw pic.twitter.com/iEM6UGoa5l
— Dodge (@seidodge) August 26, 2016
And here’s the Gif:
A harmless tweet, unlikely to offend anyone, but it was quickly deleted from the club’s Twitter account.
Dundalk’s first match in the competition will be on September 15, when they travel to the Netherlands to face AZ Alkmaar. After hosting Maccabi Tel Avib in their next match, Dubdalk will welcome Zenit to Ireland on October 20 before the return fixture on November 3.
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