New dawn breaks for Hearts

GRAHAM BEAN
IN BRAGA

ON A wonderful night in Portugal, Hearts sealed their place in the inaugural group phase of the UEFA Cup with a performance full of courage and commitment.

Nobody embodied this more than Mark de Vries whose two goals earned the Tynecastle club a 2-2 draw with SC Braga for a 5-3 aggregate first round triumph. The result means that Hearts, in debt to the tune of £19.1 million, can expect a very welcome financial windfall from the club’s extended participation in Europe, with a minimum of four more matches guaranteed.

The striker was only able to play after having a pain-killing injection in his injured foot 15 minutes before kick-off, but he lasted 77 minutes and tormented the Braga defence.

Craig Levein paid tribute to De Vries as he revelled in his finest hour as Hearts’ head coach. He was also highly critical of his opposite number Jesualdo Ferreira, accusing the Braga coach of being disrespectful to the Hearts players in the build-up to the two matches.

"This means a lot to me, the club, the players and the fans," said Levein. "I had ruled Mark out in earlier in the week because I thought he didn’t have a chance of making it. But he said to me yesterday that he felt a bit better. He trained this morning and said he wanted to give it a try.

"He took a pain-killing injection which was very brave and I’m very grateful to him. I didn’t ask him to do it, he wanted to. Ramon Perreira also took one and it shows the players care about the club and want to play for the club, and that’s very important in a team game.

"I was disappointed last season when we beat Bordeaux away in the UEFA Cup then went out after losing the second leg at Tynecastle, so this was very satisfying."

Levein was particularly pleased to get the better of Ferreira and he had some strong words for the Braga coach.

"It’s satisfying for the players to prove to the Braga coach that they are a good team. We played the game on the field, but he played the game with his mouth. He was disrespectful to us. Before the first leg he said we were a poor team, but all it did was make the players angry.

"The players read his comments in the newspapers and they were disgusted by his behaviour."

Asked if he spoke to Ferreira after the game, Levein replied: "I’m not interested in speaking to him."

De Vries confirmed that Ferreira’s behaviour had wound up the players.

"It’s okay to think these things, but you don’t say them. It’s backfired on him because it made us get stuck in all the more. If our manager tells us the opposing manager is saying these things then it just fires us up."

The striker admitted his right foot felt "a bit sore" at the end but said it was definitely worth it. "It’s one of the best results of my career and I didn’t want to miss the game," said De Vries. "We waited until the last moment then took the injection."

De Vries took a stud to the foot in last week’s League Cup tie against Kilmarnock and had all been ruled out of the European tie by Levein. He said he would be willing to take another injection to play against Livingston in the league on Sunday.

Ferreira, meanwhile, paid a belated tribute to Levein when pressed about his pre-match comments.

"Hearts are a good team. I respect Hearts but I felt we were good enough to have won these matches."

Hearts now go into the draw for the group stage which takes place in Switzerland on Tuesday. The revamped UEFA Cup will have eight groups of five teams. The clubs play each other just once with two home games and two away. The top three sides from each section proceed to the next round as the tournament reverts to a two-legged knockout format.

Chris Robinson, the outgoing Hearts chief executive, flew into Portugal yesterday to attend the game on the day he confirmed he had a greed a deal to sell his 19.6 per cent stake in the club to the Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov.

Taken from the Scotsman