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<-Page <-Team Wed 23 Aug 2006 AEK Athens 3 Hearts 0 Team-> Page->
<-Srce <-Type Telegraph ------ Report Type-> Srce->
Valdas Ivanauskas <-auth Roddy Forsyth auth-> Iouri Baskakov
Brellier Julien McCann Neil [J Souza pen 79] ;[N Liberopoulos 82] ;[J Souza 85]
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Pospisil happy with Uefa Cup draw


By Roddy Forsyth

Auld acquaintance was brought to mind for Hearts and Rangers when the draw for the first round of the Uefa Cup was made in Monaco yesterday. The Tynecastle side, knocked out of the Champions League by AEK Athens in midweek, will have to make better headway against Sparta Prague if they are to reach the Uefa Cup group stage for the second time in two years.

Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts manager, responded to the pairing with a recollection of his own playing days when he said: "I played for Salzburg against Sparta eight years ago and they were a very good team. We have many Czech players and so we are aware of Sparta."

One of Hearts' Czechs, Michal Pospisil, said: "I'm looking forward to this, because it gives me a chance to play in my home country again and see some good friends in Prague, but also because I think Sparta are not so strong now in the Czech league as they were two years ago. I would say our chances are 50-50."

Hearts were originally drawn to play away in the first leg, but will now open at Murrayfield to avoid a fixture clash with Slavia Prague.

Meanwhile, Paul Le Guen, the Rangers manager, would happily settle for a repeat of his previous encounter with Rangers' Norwegian opponents, Molde. When Le Guen played for Paris St Germain, in 1995, they were 5-1 aggregate winners, also in the first round.

Molde are bottom of the Norwegian league and qualified for Europe this term by winning the Norwegian Cup. However, they dismissed Skonto Riga in the qualifying round, and Le Guen said: "I know of this team because I played against them with PSG, and we must be very careful."



Taken from telegraph.co.uk


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