Bullish Jim Jefferies targets victory in Hungary

Published Date: 28 July 2011
By Barry Anderson
in Székesfehérvár, Hungary
JIM Jefferies harbours ambitions of winning tonight's Europa League qualifying tie against Paksi having watched the Hungarians in action twice in the past seven days. The Hearts manager is confident his team can prevail in the tournament's third qualifying round against opponents playing in their first ever European campaign.
Paksi defeated Tromso 3-0 in Norway seven days ago with Jefferies an interested spectator. He then watched them lose 4-0 against Videoton on Sunday in the Sostoi Stadium, the venue for tonight's encounter.

Problems remained with David Obua's visa last night as he remained trapped in red tape at Budapest airport. With or without the Ugandan, Jefferies believes Hearts can score and potentially win in Hungary. "We've got a squad. We've had to do without Mehdi Taouil and Andy Webster but Jamie Hamill is back," he explained.

"I still feel we can beat them here. We can give ourselves a chance of winning this game; that would make it a bit easier at home. They've not got any great stars, but they're a good unit and work well. If we do what we did on Saturday (against Rangers] we can cause them a lot of problems.

"I've seen Paksi twice, I've got a lot of information on them. Janos Balogh has been a big help because he knows quite a few of their players and he's friendly with their captain (Eger Laszlo], who is suspended for this game. But they are a small club, they've done fantastically well to get into Europe for the first time.

"And that was a tremendous result to beat Tromso, who were 14 games into their season and lying second in the Norwegian league. They had to play on an artificial pitch over there and it looked as if it took the first 45 minutes to get used to it. We'll be stressing that this won't be easy, but, if we play as well as we can, we're more than capable of winning here."

Should they progress, Hearts could find themselves and Celtic flying the flag for Scottish football in Europe with Dundee United already eliminated and Rangers toiling to overcome Malmo in the Champions League qualifying rounds following a 1-0 first-leg defeat at Ibrox. Jefferies admitted feeling an added sense of responsibility.

"It's always difficult to start so early," continued Jefferies. "In United's case, they didn't even have one league game before their qualifier, so it was going to be a tough tie. They gave a good account of themselves, but just came up short against decent opposition.

"Rangers are not out of it. I've seen them in tough positions before and they're capable of going to Malmo to get a result. But it would be nice for us to fly the flag a wee bit and be the only club that manages to get a victory for Scotland. It would be good news for ourselves and for the country.

"I do get the impression that people are watching for us to do it, willing us to do it. But that's not something we can worry about. We want it for our own reasons - to give ourselves a great chance of finishing the job at Tynecastle.

"We've got to do this over two legs and it would be nice if we could go into the second game having scored, because remember this is a team who went to Tromso and won 3-0. We have to leave here with the tie very much in our hands."

Marius Zaliukas, Jefferies' captain, has done some research of his own. "I've already spoken to my old Hearts team-mate Linas Pilabitis; he plays here in Hungary for Gyori," said the Lithuanian. "He said Paksi aren't the best team in the country, but they work hard, fight for every ball until the last second.

"I was surprised by their result in Tromso because everyone said the Norwegians were better, but that's football. All the players know not to under-estimate this team. We're focused and we don't want to waste last season's achievements. I've heard Paksi say they are inexperienced and it's their first year in Europe, but they can use that as a weapon against us."

Paksi progressed past Santa Coloma of Andorra in the first qualifying round before a 4-1 aggregate defeat of Tromso in round two. The Hungarians acknowledged that tonight offers their sternest test to date.

Karoly Kis, the Paksi coach, said his side hope to surprise Hearts, but admitted the Edinburgh club are favourites: "This has been the biggest success for Paksi so far and this is a new adventure for us now.

"My opinion is Hearts are the favourites, they have European experience and have very good players. Hearts are very well prepared and they play the kind of football that we're prepared for. We'll also be giving everything."

Taken from the Scotsman