FINGERS ON THE BEL

HEARTS called out their Eastern European spy network last night after the Champions League draw dropped them between a rock and a hard place.

The Scottish Cup-holders will meet Bosnian champions Saroki Briejeg or Shakhtyor, who won the the title in Belarus for the first time last year.

If Shakhtyor beat the Bosnians in the first qualifying round, Hearts are guaranteed a head start in building up a dossier on their rivals.

Tynecastle owner Vladimir Romanov bankrolls Belarus side MTZ Ripo and Yuri Puntus, a former colleague of the millionaire, manages the national team.

Hearts coach Valdas Ivanauskas said: "Puntus knows every player and every detail about them. That can be a big plus for us.

"I don't know much about the Bosnians but I'll be making calls to find out and we'll have people go to watch them.

"The draw is OK for us. Saroki were seeded in the draw but Shakhtyor are favourites."

Ivanauskas will also be able to grill Hearts' Bosnian winger Mirsad Beslija for information on Siroki.

Shakhtyor and Siroki will meet on July 11 or 12 with the return leg a week later. The winners will then meet Hearts in Edinburgh on July 25 or 26 in the first leg of their tie.

Theaway tie with the champions of Belarus, if they get past Saroki, may have to be moved away from their own Stroitel Stadium because the tiny arena has room for only 3000 fans.

And if the Tynecastle club want any more help on the subject of the Belarussians they could always try an unlikely source, Hibs' Ivan Sproule.

In 2003, Shakhtyor hammered Omagh Town 8-1 on aggregate in the Intertoto Cup.

Seven of the goals were scored in the Irish leg of the tie and Omagh's consolation was scored by the soon to be Hibs-bound Sproule.

But Hearts' main attacking inspiration from last season, Paul Hartley, has urged his team-mates to ignore the past and concentrate on the immediate future.

Speaking from Hearts' training camp in the south of France Hartley said: "I don't know too much about either of the sides we could face but I know I'll be giving them an equal amount of respect.

"They will be difficult to beat, particularly when we're away from home.

"But what Shakhtyor did to Omagh three years ago is of no consequence to me now. And the same goes for Saroki's previous games."

The Bosnians met Basle in the first round of the UEFA Cup last season and lost six goals without reply over the two legs on the way to elimination.

Hartley said: "Hearts can't afford to read anything into that result either even if we did put Basle out of Europe ourselves the season before that. All that's important is that we have a good squad."

Hearts will play the first leg at their adopted home of Murrayfield in the first leg, regardless of which side they play.

Hartley said: "Most people would prefer to have the second and decisive leg of a European tie in Edinburgh but it's up to us to show it doesn't matter where we face any of our opponents."

Coach John McGlynn admitted he'd tap Beslija for information on Saroki. He said: "Mirsad will have some knowledge of them and he'll be able to help us with details of what kind of area we might be walking into.

"We have almost a month to prepare for either team, so we'll make sure we're ready for them."

Hearts' frontman Edgaras Jankauskas, right, warned his team-mates to avoid a Champions League humiliation on the scale of Celtic's defeat from Artmedia Bratislava.

He said: "Only five minutes of lost concentration could cost us a place in Europe. We have to concentrate and be well prepared.

"It's an honour for the players, the supporters and the club to play in the Champions League.

"We must try to deliver for Hearts because the club deserves that much.

"We have a very good squad and there is a good atmosphere in the dressing room. We can do more than just participate in the SPL.

"That's my aim and it's the ambition of all my colleagues.

"We really have to give it everything we've got because it's going to be tough.

"Never mind where the opposition comes from, they're going to give us a hard time because everyone wants to take part in the Champions League.

"I don't know much about the standard of football in Belarus but the Bosnians will be dangerous.

"They have lots of football academies for schoolkids and the players have great technical ability as well as physical fitness.

"I believe they would be the harder of the two sides we have to face."

SIROKI

FACTFILE

NK SIROKI BRIJEG

(Bosnia-Herzegovina)

FORMED

1948

GROUND

Percara Stadium, 10,000 capacity

COACH

Ivica Barbaric

UEFA COEFFICIENT

2.695

FACT

Siroki fans are known as the 'Skipori' which is in tribute to those originally known by that name who resisted communist rule for several years after World War II

SHAKHTYOR

FACTFILE

FC SHAKHTYOR SOLIGORSK

(Belarus)

FORMED

1961

GROUND

Stroitel Stadium, 3,500 capacity

COACH

Yuri Vergeichuk

UEFA COEFFICIENT:

1.457

FACT

Shakhtyor have not lost a home game in 60 outings in a sequence which stretches back to 2000

Taken from the Daily Record