Pin strikes fear

SPARTA PRAGUE assistant coach Miroslav Jirkal believes Mauricio Pinilla has the potential to demolish the Czechs' European dreams and turn thousands of supporters against them.

Jirkal watched the Chilean's scintillating home debut from the directors' box on Saturday as Pinilla scored the opener in a 4-1 victory over Inverness. He returned to Prague yesterday to file his report to Sparta's head coach Stanislav Griga.

In it, Jirkal has pinpointed the on-loan Sporting Lisbon striker as the principal threat to Sparta's intentions of progressing past Hearts in next month's UEFA Cup first round.

The assistant coach conceded that the Toyota Stadium is already verging on a supporter revolt after the club failed to qualify for this season's Champions League.

Sparta already know the capabilities of Hearts' Czech forwards Roman Bednar and Michal Pospisil only too well, and Jirkal feels a three-pronged attack containing those two and Pinilla may be too much for his side to contend with.

"For Sparta it's a special task to beat Hearts because we have played for many years in the Champions League and our supporters' expectations are very high, so we have to progress otherwise we will lose a lot of supporters," said Jirkal.

"There are three players at Hearts - Bednar, Pospisil and Pinilla - who I believe are typical examples of the Scottish game. Their physical style suits Scotland. Pinilla was one of the best players on Saturday and was a permanent danger to Inverness. He looks to be a great player for Hearts. He will be a real problem and we will have to be very careful.

"My colleagues at Sparta Prague have worked with Bednar and Pospisil and whenever I saw them play in the Czech championship they did very well. We like their style and we know their talent. It is too early for us to say what style of play we will adopt for Hearts because there is still more than two weeks until our first meeting."

Jirkal agreed that Hearts were slightly flattered by the weekend's 4-1 scoreline. He continued: "It was a very interesting game, very fast, with a lot of chances. The away team didn't play that badly but Hearts were a little bit more lucky. They won with power and I don't think the result gave a fair reflection of the match. Perhaps 2-1 or even 3-1 would have been accurate but 4-1 was too much.

"The chances of us beating Hearts are 50-50. We have a very good group of forwards but the Hearts defence is very well organised. It is difficult to say. Scottish football is very physical. That is the difference between the Czech game and the Scottish game.

"The football in Scotland is very fast and the players are working hard permanently. The passes are short and fast and the ball is in the air a lot, that is typical of Scottish football. It's very important for us to win over the two legs but I think it's equally important for Hearts to go through." Sparta suffered a 3-0 reverse away to Mlada Boleslav, Bednar's former club, yesterday in the Czech Gambrinus Liga. Hearts' European opponents have now slipped to ninth place in the table after five games.

Meanwhile, the Evening News can reveal that Julien Brellier was rested against Inverness despite being fully fit.

The Frenchman had endured a controversial few days leading up to the match after being dismissed in Athens last week, but his agent suspects his client's absence at the weekend could be designed to pressurise him into signing a new contract.

"Julien was fit and there are no problems there, he was just told he wouldn't be playing," said Maurizio de Giorgis. "Maybe this is because he has not signed the new contract and they want him to agree to their terms. But the proposal was almost offensive so that's not going to happen.

"He will stay to give his best and if he plays, he plays. He knows that if he is being kept out of the team there is nothing he can do about it. But if they want to let him go I'm sure we can find him a club."

Taken from the Scotsman