Ewan Smith talks to Tynecastle’s level-headed Champions League veteran, Takis Fyssas

IT’S the agony afflicting everyone connected with Hearts, so near and yet so far from everything Vladimir Romanov has been striving for.

Tantalising barely begins to describe the cigarette paper-thin line between the magic of the Champions League and a season spent languishing in the land of ‘what if?’

Welcome to the lottery of the qualifying stages, the place where a million dreams are spawned but where thousands of hearts are just as easily broken ... and sometimes, in the oddest of places.

Even Celtic now know how tough the early qualifying rounds of the competition are, and before Murrayfield can salivate over the stars of the World Cup come the real pinnacle of the game, it’s Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus or Bosnia’s Siroki Brijeg that must be overcome.

For the many Tynecastle players who have never come close to this level of opportunity, the delights of the former’s Alexander Novik, or Josip Popic in the slightly mundane colours of the latter, threaten to throw up any manner of banana skins.

Fortunately, in Takis Fyssas, Hearts can call on a genuine veteran of the main stage with 40 appearances in the competition while at Panathinaikos.

At 33, the Greece defender’s best days are barely behind him, and for all Valdas Ivanauskas’ experience of European Cups with Hamburg, he will lean heavily on Fyssas to get that message across to a dressing-room whose breakthrough second-place Premierleague finish will count for nothing if they don’t at least reach the third qualifying round.

Only then, with the fallback of Uefa Cup groups – and a decent seeding in the offing – will Romanov’s players begin to deliver on the challenge laid down by the club’s overlord. As Hearts continued their preparations in Austria this week, Fyssas’ mind was on little else.

“We are so close to the main comp etition that we can almost touch the Barcelona or Real Madrid shirts,” admitted Fyssas. “But we can’t think for one second getting there will be easy.

“We have two rounds to pass and a lot of tough teams to play against along the way so we must be very focused right from the start.

“Our first game is on July 26 and that must be the only thing on our minds. We can’t think about the elite teams in Europe, we have to be totally professional and give everything in every game.

“I know just what this competition can mean but that is only if you get to the group stages. As a young boy I was so excited when I saw the lights at the big stadiums. I was both delighted and surprised that I was playing at such a high level.

“Now, for the moment at least, those games are only tucked away in my memory. The Champions League is something terrific, at times almost unexplainable.

“It is the dream of every young boy who has a ball attached to his feet on the street to play in that competition and all the games are amazing – not just the ones against the giants.

“Yes the big games are exciting and generally you play better because you take 30 or 40 per cent more inspiration from the people in the stadiums but every minute counts.

“I have a lot of fond memories of Champions League football. I have played in the Bernabeu, the Nou Camp and Old Trafford – four times – with both Panathinakos and Greece when they played England.

“The Champions League is a celebration of football and I hope we pass the qualifying rounds to experience it. Only then will some of my younger colleagues know what I mean.”

Back in May, Fyssas took out a microphone moments after Hearts had beaten Aberdeen 1-0 at Tynecastle to clinch second spot to give his own rendition of the Champions League theme tune to the fans.

It’s doubtful that Fyssas will get caught cold when the qualifying campaign starts at the end of this month, but the name Artmedia Bratislava is all anyone in Scottish football needs remember.

Of course, the Slovaks’ run to the groups also acts as inspiration to Hearts – and Fyssas’ own winners medal at Euro 2004 is probably the most potent reminder that anything can happen, provided the players’ attitude is right.

Fyssas has left that medal in his house near Athens, insistent that his new football life in Scotland should begin with a clean slate.

“Greece is no longer my home, Edinburgh is my home and it's what I do now that counts,” he underlined. “I made a fresh start at Hearts last season and it worked out well as we finished second and won the Scottish Cup. Now this season is going to be very, very difficult. I miss the thrill of the big games in the Champions League, but now we all have a chance to experience them. We will also compete for the league. I don’t want to say big words about how we are going to do in the title race because it’s not my character to do that.

“First, I want to see how we start the season and then we can perhaps talk again about what we can achieve as a club.”

Taken from the Sunday Herald