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| <-Page | <-Team | Wed 02 Aug 2006 NK Siroki Brijeg 0 Hearts 0 | Team-> | Page-> |
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| Valdas Ivanauskas | <-auth | Martin Mcmillan | auth-> | Viktor Kassai |
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Hearts to face a rebuilt AthensMARTIN McMILLAN August 04 2006 A place in the group phase of the Champions League is the prize but Hearts and AEK seemed keen last night to play down the importance of a tie that carries a dividend of millions to the successful team. Winger Neil McCann maintained that European aspirations are on hold this weekend with the Bank of Scotland Premierleague visit of Celtic. Meanwhile, officials at the Greek club were talking down their hopes, saying they could not compete financially with the big clubs. Hearts will take on AEK in the first leg of the third qualifying round at Murrayfield on Wednesday, after a completing 3-0 aggregate win over Siroki Brijeg. The Tynecastle side arrived back at Edinburgh early yesterday morning after a tiring journey, which followed the goalless draw in Bosnia. McCann said: "The big games keep coming, don't they? But that is the price you pay for being a successful side. "However, the two games against Siroki go right out of the window now and we have to look at Celtic. "It is only the second SPL game of the season and, while I doubt it will have any bearing on the league title, we want to keep our good run going. "It is the old cliche of taking it game by game, and every game we are playing is different because we are going from domestic to European matches. But it is important for us to keep this run going. We are still unbeaten and we want to keep it that way." Much of the praise for the passage through to the third qualifying round went to Craig Gordon, who pulled off a series of fine saves. However, McCann insists the Scotland goalkeeper is just one part of a determined Tynecastle defensive unit. He added: "Playing away in Europe is always hard and they showed they are a decent team, but we are through and that is the main thing. "Everyone knows how important Craig is to the team. But we were very good defensively overall, especially Steven Pressley and Christophe Berra in the centre. "It was really important to go through the tie but we are pleased we never lost a goal. It was not a pretty game and we did not play great football. "We thought they would come at us and change their game a bit from the first match at Murrayfield and that is how it turned out. "But we were quite disciplined, kept our shape and never tried to go crazy for an away goal." McCann, after discussing the recent past against Siroki and contemplating the immediate future against Celtic, did briefly refer to the Champions League shoot-out. "We will need to improve our game in the next round because Athens are a very good team with a lot of experience." Nikos Koulis, AEK vice-president, was similarly wary about building up the tie. He said he was hopeful his club could eliminate Hearts rather than highly optimistic. He accepted, too, that the club could not compete financially with some of the European giants. However, Koulis was not quite ready to concede the tie. He said: "Our goal is to play good football and advance as much as we can. "Unfortunately, in today's football, money is a very important component. But we will give it a good try and go as far as we can." AEK boast a new manager with an impressive record who will be keen to deny Hearts their first crack at the group stages. Former Barcelona and Real Betis manager Llorenc Serra Ferrer took over this summer and the Greek club are already witnessing the benefits before their league season has started. AEK defeated Benfica 3-1 in a friendly on Tuesday but Koulis insists the style of the win came as no surprise after Ferrer's previous experience. Koulis said: "He is making a big impact. We played some very nice football against Benfica. He is applying the techniques he learned at Barcelona and Real Betis. "People believe the Primera Liga in Spain – along with the English Premiership – are two of the most competitive leagues in Europe. So somebody who has spent years there coaching must know quite a bit about football." Hearts will also have a passionate Athens crowd against them in the second leg at the Olympic Stadium on August 23. Koulis said: "AEK supporters are very fanatical. We are a team whose roots are from Istanbul – Constantinople – and most of the fans of 60 to 70 years ago were people who came from Asia Minor when Greece left modern-day Turkey. "So we carry a lot of history and people support the team very wholeheartedly. "We have a capacity of a little more than 70,000 and we hope it will be full for the visit of Hearts. "We had an average attendance of more than 30,000 last year but we had gates of more than 60,000 for some games. "So it is going to be a great chance to watch two good teams playing." But the AEK vice-president recognises Hearts have their own dreams. Koulis said: "I know Hearts broke the duopoly of Celtic and Rangers last season and they have the objective of becoming one of the major teams in Europe." Progress to the group stages would be a significant step to achieve that aim.  Taken from the Herald |
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