Hearts get welcome to Sarajevo

STUART BATHGATE

FOR football teams, police escorts from the airport to the city centre is nothing new. For supporters, it is an altogether novel experience - even more so when, on the way into town, locals stop to wave and smile.

It was a bemusing way to begin our two-day visit to the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but one which augurs well for this evening’s UEFA Cup first-round, second-leg tie in the Olympic Stadium. The fans of Zeljeznicar, who go into the game 2-0 down to Hearts, may call themselves the Maniacs, but in Edinburgh they proved themselves to be a friendly bunch, and the impression yesterday was that Sarajevans as a whole could hardly be more welcoming. United by a love of football and beer, the Maniacs and the Jambos are expected by their respective clubs to fraternise well.

Just in case they do not, you get the impression that the local security forces will have the experience to deal with any unrest at the ground. The only other aircraft in sight when our flight landed yesterday lunchtime was a helicopter gunship; in the terminal itself there was a detachment of French CRS as well as Bosnian soldiers and police; and in town you can spot the odd representatives of other allied armed forces.

Needless to say, any Hearts fan who thought this was an over-the-top way to greet a couple of hundred Scots was quickly reminded on that escorted drive into town of the conflict which led to those forces being here. The war is eight years in the past now, and the Bosnians prefer to look ahead to what they hope is a brighter future rather than back to those bleak days, but evidence of it is still all around.

The suburban squalor of Sarajevo’s estates is not that different from some of the less salubrious parts of central Scotland, with one essential exception. Our council flats tend not to be riddled with bullet-holes or scarred by the impact craters from shells. Here, there are tower blocks where whole floors have been left uninhabited, the glass long gone from the windows, which in the main have not even been blocked up.

Surrounded by hills, Sarajevo was a sitting duck for the Serb artillery. On reflection, you may think it is a wonder that so much of it has been left more or less intact.

‘The Zeljeznicar people thought that getting us was a great draw. And that inspires us’ -
CRAIG LEVEIN

History is tangible here. There has been a regeneration of sorts since 1995, but these things invariably take time, as those of us who travelled with Aberdeen to Berlin in last year’s UEFA Cup will remember. The German capital was like a giant building site then, as the last vestiges of Communist rule were at last being swept away, a full decade after reunification - and that was without the aftermath of a war to contend with.

Bosnian football, too, has been slowly coming together, putting the ethnic divisions aside. The standard here is nothing like that of neighbouring Croatia, but that, at least at present, is no source of angst. Instead, there is a calm pleasure that the country can have a proper league like the rest of the continent, and that that league’s representatives can participate in European competition. After being cut off for some time, the clubs here are simply glad to be back in the mainstream.

Certainly, in the case of Zeljeznicar, it is probable that their hopes of making a real impression on the tournament will have to wait for at least another year. Since sacking their manager immediately after the first leg they have enjoyed their own, minor, regeneration, but to overcome the deficit from Tynecastle they will have to play beyond themselves and hope that Hearts have an off-night.

Such things are not unknown, but on paper at least the Edinburgh club are stronger than they were three weeks ago, with Phil Stamp and Jean-Louis Valois both expected to start. Stamp was ruled out of the first match with a foot injury, while the Frenchman was making his way back to full fitness and only came off the bench.

"We’ve got Phil coming back, and Jean-Louis is now close enough to complete match fitness to start the game, so from that point of view we are stronger than we were in the first leg," said Craig Levein.

"They will have to try to take the game to us. If we score it makes it very difficult for them, and I believe we have the players to do that," the coach continued. "With Zeljeznicar having to come out it gives our strikers a bit more room."

Stamp, Valois and Mark de Vries have all shown their prowess in the counter-attack since joining Hearts, and each presents a different kind of threat to a defence. With De Vries being joined up front by a slighter, faster striker in the shape of either Dennis Wyness or Andy Kirk, Levein’s team have the versatility in attack to really trouble Zeljeznicar.

While clearly extremely keen for his club to reach the next round and a probable match-up with one of the competition’s bigger teams, Levein has also acknowledged over the past few weeks his desire to help restore the reputation of Scottish football to the point that other sides once again feel worried when drawn against a team from our country. "I do know that the Zeljeznicar people thought that getting us was a great draw," he said yesterday. "And that inspires us."

Zeljeznicar will seek inspiration from their crowd, which may approach 30,000. They shrank back into themselves after being outmuscled by Hearts in the first leg, and they will need an early goal, or at least a lot of pressure, if they are to convince their support that they have a hope.

Taken from the Scotsman