You can hardly blame Dundalk if they are cursing their luck at drawing Belarussian side BATE Borisov in the Champions League Second Qualifying Round.

While there is a reason why the word 'hope' exists in the dictionary, here's why the task is so daunting for Stephen Kenny's Lilywhites.

Pedigree

Since the turn of the Millennium, BATE have been dominant in their homeland, winning the last nine Belarussian league titles and are already eight points clear at the top of the table after just 10 games.

That in itself is a red herring if there is little competition domestically. But UEFA does rank the Belarussian league 21st in Europe, which is well ahead of the League of Ireland which is down at 40th.

But it is in Europe that BATE have also made an impact that Irish clubs still dream of. Since participating in European competition at the turn of this century, they have advanced to the Champions League group stages four times.

While they have found knockout round qualification a step too far, reaching the last-32 in 2008-09, 2011-12, 2012-13 and the past campaign is an achievement for a club which fell at the first qualifying round hurdle at the hands of Bohemians (3-1 on aggregate) in the first round back in the 2003-04 season.

BATE Borysow 3-1 Bayern Monachium highlights... by f100000462793569

Famous results

In the 2012-13 season, the club which is from down the road from capital city Minsk, defeated Bayern Munich 3-1 at the Borisov Arena in a group stage - all the more incredible when you consider that Bayern side went on to lift the Champions League trophy later that season under Jupp Heynckes.

BATE also beat Basque La Liga side Athletic Club de Bilbao in the 2014-15 group stages, although their overall results at that stage of the competition are not particularly impressive.

Players

The last Belarus national team squad to face Spain in the Euro 2016 qualifiers included five BATE players and a further from have also been called up in the last 12 months. However, the average number of caps earned by all those players is not huge.

As recently as 2012-13, ex-Arsenal and Barcelona attacking midfielder Aleksander Hleb played for the club, in his second spell for the club.