Rangnick expecting nothing less than victory

KENNETH STEPHEN

SCHALKE head coach Ralf Rangnick has sent out an ominous warning to Hearts ahead of tonight’s Group A clash at Murrayfield, warning his side could beat anyone in Europe on current form.

The 46-year-old former English teacher brought his side, currently second in the Bundesliga, to Edinburgh yesterday minus influential Serbian centre-back Mladen Krstajic, who did not travel with the party.

Last night Schalke trained at Murrayfield, with Rangnick making it clear his side were in the capital to take three points after drawing their first match with Christian Gross’s Basel.

"I said yesterday that we were disappointed to drop two points from the first match and, since you cannot get two points back, we have to go for the three against Hearts. If we play the way we have in the past two matches, we could beat any team in Europe. But that is what we must do, we must be at our very best on Thursday against Hearts," he said.

Since succeeding Jupp Heynckes in September, Rangnick has guided Schalke from second bottom of the table to second top, breaking club records in the process.

Schalke’s past two results have seen them defeat Nuremberg 2-0 and record a 3-2 win over Rangnick’s former club Vfb Stuttgart at the weekend. Rangnick has set his players targets of maintaining that run and believes a victory could go a long way to securing qualification.

"It is a game we should want to win if we don’t want to rely on getting a result away against Feyenoord. We have a home game against Ferencvaros and I believe, if we can get seven points, we will be in the next round."

Rangnick is aware the appointment of John Robertson could lift Hearts, but hopes his side are not caught up in the atmosphere.

"Sometimes a team getting a new manager can help them. When we came in six weeks ago, we were second bottom of the league, now we are second top. However, it is more important for us what we do."

Meanwhile, Hearts will receive cash from German TV for tonight’s clash, with ARD covering the action live. Setanta is also screening the match on pay-per-view.

Taken from the Scotsman