IT'S CHILE FOR JULY

CHILEAN striker Mauricio Pinilla last night breezed into Tynecastle and vowed to fire Hearts to the SPL title and the UEFA Champions League group stages.

The 22 year-old hitman has signed a one-year loan deal with the Jambos from Sporting Lisbon with the option of a three-year contract extension.

Pinilla, who has made over 30 appearances for Chile, said: "Hearts are a very big club and I am delighted to get the opportunity here to show my value as a player. I want to help this club in the domestic league and in Europe.

"I want to help Hearts get to the No.1 position in the SPL and it is my ambition to get them into the Champions League group stage and to get as far as possible from there.

"I have a lot of international experience with Chile. I feel that I am a very strong and quick striker who can score goals and I hope to bring these attributes to Hearts.

"I don't think that it will be too much of a problem settling in at Hearts and getting used to a British style of football. It will not be too complicated and I hope to settle in as quickly as possible."

Pinilla has not ruled out the possibility of staying at Tynecastle for four years and hopes to fare better than his close friend and fellow striker Sebastian Rozental.

Rozental was the last Chilean to play in Scottish football, although his time here was brief after an injury-plagued spell at Rangers in the 90s.

He said: "Ideally it would be a great situation for me if the one-year loan was successful and I exercised the option to stay for another three years with Hearts.

"If I was to remain here for four years and honour my contract I would be absolutely delighted.

"Sebastian is an excellent player although he had a tough time at Rangers with injury.

"I know him very well but we did not get the chance to speak before I came to Hearts because everything happened so quickly. However, I will maybe speak to him in the future."

Pinilla spent last season on loan at Spanish side Racing Santander and has also enjoyed stints with Celta Vigo and Italian sides Inter Milan and Chievo.

Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas was delighted to unveil his latest signing and hopes the new arrival shows the determination needed to push himself into the first-team reckoning.

He said: "We have to get him integrated in the team and he has a good chance to play but has to work hard for his place.

"He has quality but he must try in training and in games. We have a lot of strikers, quality strikers, but the season is very long and we need options.

"We had five strikers last season but during the winter we had just two fit in Calum Elliot and Michal Pospisil.

"Mauricio has a chance to play but we have good quality players and he must work hard for his place in the team."

Hearts open their SPL account with a trip to Dunfermline today as the domestic season gets under way and defender Christophe Berra is excited about the campaign ahead.

He recently signed a new five-year deal and sampled the high life against NK Siroki Brijeg in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Berra knows he can plug the defensive gap left by Andy Webster and settle into a partnership with captain Steven Pressley.

He said: "I am not the kind of player who rests on his laurels and I will be bursting a gut in every game and every training session to improve on my weaknesses.

"Hopefully if I keep my performances up then I will become a regular this season but there are so many good players here that if your performances dip there is someone to take your place.

"Elvis has been a great help. He talks me through games and I respect him so much. My confidence has got a lot higher and that's shown in my performances. I enjoyed the experience of playing in the Champions League in front of 30,000 fans.

"I was a bit nervous at the start but once I got my first touch I settled in and thought I did well. You learn a lot playing in Europe as the standard is different and hopefully that b odes well for me in the future."

Berra knows Hearts will be viewed as a big-game scalp this season after their heroic exploits last term. But he is aware that if they want to share equal billing with the Old Firm they will have to meet every challenge this season head on.

He said: "The season has started very quickly for us all and Dunfermline away in the first game will be difficult.

We will have to be at the top of our game if we are to claim all three points.

"There is a lot of pressure on us to repeat what we did last season and other teams will see Hearts as a major scalp. We have to prove that we are not one-season wonders and I think that Hearts have the players capable of doing that.

"All top teams have to cope with whatever is thrown at them domestically and in Europe. You see the Chelseas, Arsenals and Real Madrids of this world coping and they are in the Champions League every season.

"If you want to play at the top levels in the game then you have to learn to deal with this kind of pressure."

Meanwhile, Ivanauskas believes Hearts have to get their SPL campaign off to a flyer against the Pars to follow Wednesday's impressive outing at Murrayfield.

He said: "This is a very difficult game for us but it is important we start off the SPL season with a victory the same way we did in the Champions League.

"We got a good result onWednesday and need to get a positive reaction again in this match but it will certainly not be easy."

Hearts will be without Paul Hartley and Mirsad Beslija but Julien Brellier is back in contention.

THE DRAW

Sheriff Tiraspol or Spartak Moscow v Liberec

Shakhtar Donetsk v FH Hafnarfjordur or Legia Warsaw FC Zurich or SV Red Bull

Salzburg v Valencia Levski Sofia or Sioni Bolnisi v Chievo HEARTS or Siroki Brijeg v AEK Athens

CSKA Moscow v Djurgardens or SCP Ruzomberok AC Milan v CORK or Red Star Belgrade

Galatasaray v Mlada Boleslav or Valerenga

Standard Liege v HIT Gorica or Steaua Bucharest

Austria Magna v Benfica FK Ekranas or Dinamo Zagreb v ARSENAL

FC Copenhagen or MyPa v Ajax Hamburg v Osasuna, FK Metalurgs or Dynamo Kiev v Fenerbahce or B36 Torshavn

LIVERPOOL v Maccabi Haifa

Lille v Debrecen or Rabotnicki Kometal

First leg August 8-9, second legs August 22-23

Taken from the Daily Record