Karipidis heartened by European adventure

It will be worth it, if Hristos Karipidis helps to sink his compatriots next week when AEK Athens come to Edinburgh on Champions League business.

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The 23-year-old defender was acquired from PAOK Salonika and signed a three-year contract with the Tynecastle club and should be able to play against AEK as his registration beat the deadline for naming squads to participate in the third qualifying round.

Karipidis, who joins fellow Greek Takis Fyssas at Hearts, was a homecoming present from Vladimir Romanov after his team had dutifully overcome NK Siroki Brijeg on Wednesday night, by drawing 0-0 in Bosnia to win 3-0 on aggregate. That performance did not meet with the approval of Romanov, the owner, who criticised Valdas Ivanauskas’s players but the bottom line was that Hearts had completed their task and are now just 180 minutes away from the holy grail of the Champions League group stage.

If Hearts can overcome AEK, then they will make around £8 million from the group games. Karipidis, who could make his debut in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague encounter at home to Celtic on Sunday, has been lined up as a replacement for the dissident Andy Webster, with the Scotland centre-back on his way out to either Blackburn Rovers or Wigan Athletic.

“I am so happy to be signing for Hearts and I will fight 100 per cent for a place in the team,” Karipidis said. “I spoke with Takis Fyssas and it is important for me to have a Greek guy with me in the squad. Yesterday was difficult because I am leaving PAOK but I am going to a bigger club and I want to bring them lots of success.”

Romanov, though, felt his team needed a new face on the evidence of the game with Siroki. “I am not really satisfied,” the owner said. “We got the result but the game was not very good. I’m glad that we are in the next round but I don’t think we are ready yet for the new season.“

The one player absolved for lowering his standards was Craig Gordon, the goalkeeper, who produced several fine saves to keep a clean sheet. Ivanauskas compared the Scotland goalkeeper to Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann, the Germany goalkeepers, both of whom the Hearts head coach ran across during his playing days in the Bundesliga.

“Craig is the best goalkeeper I have ever encountered,” Ivanauskas said. “He has that very important quality that in big games he can produce that special thing that can help you win. I played against great goalkeepers during my career, like Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann, but Craig is 23 and for someone at such a young age he is just so good.

“I’m just happy with the result. We knew Siroki were a good team in their home stadium and they started very well against us with a lot of chances but we had Craig Gordon.”

Gordon believes that Hearts will have to recapture the spirit they showed in Bordeaux three years ago, when they won in France, if they are to get past the Greek side. “AEK Athens are a top-class European side so it’s going to be difficult but we have to be confident,” Gordon said. “They will be the favourites but we’ve caused surprises before. The biggest shock I’ve been involved in was winning 1-0 in Bordeaux. We also beat Braga two years ago to get to the group stages of the Uefa Cup. It will take all of that and more — the spirit of Bordeaux — to get through.”

Gordon was typically modest about his own performance against Siroki. “I made one save at the start of the second half which was just about being in the right place at the right time,” he said, “but that was one of their last real efforts. It was a very experienced and mature performance and not conceding a goal is something we can build on for next week.”

Steven Pressley, the captain, believes keeping possession will be the key against the Greek side. The Scotland defender admitted the number of times Hearts lost the ball had been a concern. “You could say ‘job done’ but, in terms of the performance, it was not one of our best,” he said. “When we go to Athens, we are going to have to keep possession far better than. We gave the ball away needlessly at times and found ourselves on the back-foot.

“We rode our luck on a couple of occasions and our performance has to improve. It is a step up again for us next week, but we will thrive on that. This was a great experience for us and a fantastic achievement.

“Technically, Athens are a very good team and are very strong. But we believe we can progress. We do not fear them and we believe we can get a result.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk