The New Saints boss Scott Ruscoe wants his players to “leave nothing behind” in their UEFA Champions League second qualifying round second leg tie at FC Copenhagen tonight.

Ruscoe’s side need to overturn a two-goal deficit after they lost the first leg at home against the Danish champions last week.

Saints spurned a handful of chances throughout the game, and were punished by a goal from Pieros Sotiriou and a penalty by Robert Skov.

Ruscoe remains optimistic his side can get a positive result in Denmark.

“It’s going to take a lot of organisation and a lot of fight,” he said.

“We have to make sure we can keep them at bay and ensure they don’t score early on, that’s imperative.

“If we do that, we then get the chance to play our game and get chances like we did the other night.

“Hopefully, we can test the goalkeeper a little more and put them under more pressure – they’re all human, they’ll all feel uncomfortable with pressure, we just need to make sure in the right situations we make the right decisions.

“Maybe we need to be cuter at times and play the game better – we could benefit from taking our time when we get free kicks in certain areas to allow us to build more possession.

“Ideally, we can score an early goal and start to trouble them – that’s our game plan.”

After conceding the opening goal in the first leg, the Welsh champions remained well in the game until the second half.

However, a dubious penalty awarded to the Danes proved to be a lethal blow for Saints and made their task in the second leg even more difficult.

Reflecting on the first leg, Ruscoe added: “I think it was a tough game, as expected. If you look at it critically, could we have got away with a 1-0? Possibly, yes.

“But they’re a good side, and I think they’ve probably got another gear to go into, especially at home.

“Our lads are in good spirits though, they’re raring to go and more than ready to come up against them – it’s what they play football for.

“We want to go there and give a good account of ourselves and leave nothing behind.”

Whatever the outcome of the game in Denmark, the European journey will continue for TNS.

If they overturn the result against FC Copenhagen and qualify for the third qualifying round of the Champions League, TNS will next week face either Red Star Belgrade of Serbia, or HJK Helsinki.

Defeat will see them enter the Europa League qualifying rounds where they will face either Valur Reykjavik of Iceland or Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria.

“Again, there won’t be much time for preparation,” said Ruscoe.

“The lads have earned it whether we end up in the Champions League or Europa League, they will have another two-legged tie, so let’s see what happens after this one.

“Hopefully, we can go another step further and reach a point we haven’t reached yet before.”