Hearts go to Anfield inspired by battling draw at Pittodrie

By STUART BATHGATE AND IAIN COLLIN
Published on Tuesday 28 August 2012 00:00

FATIGUE may have caught up with Hearts during the second half of their league match against Aberdeen on Sunday, but Jamie MacDonald believes the battling display which earned his team a point at Pittodrie can provide them with inspiration for their game at Anfield on Thursday.

Hearts rode their luck to get a 0-0 draw against Aberdeen, as the exertions of last Thursday began to tell. MacDonald believes his team have a chance of overturning their 1-0 deficit in the Europa League tie Play-off against Liverpool, and is sure that they will also have to put in another defiant show in defence.

“We put a lot into the game on Thursday night, and in the second half [against Aberdeen] I think you could see that,” the goalkeeper said. “Going down to Anfield on Thursday now is probably going to be another big task – a similar type of game – and hopefully we can defend as well.

“They won the game last Thursday with an own goal, which I don’t think we deserved. We at least deserved a draw out of that game, if not more. First half we were fantastic. So they’ll have a lot to prove. I think we just go down and try to do the same things we did last Thursday and see if we can get something from the game.

“I think we showed that on the night anything can happen. We played really well, we pressed them and we made it really hard for them. We created as many chances, if not more than they did.”

With some of their biggest players ready to take part in the second leg after sitting out the Tynecastle match, Liverpool are overwhelming favourites to reach the group stages of the competition. But MacDonald reckons that Hearts can take confidence from the fact that what they need to do to win the tie has hardly changed since before the first leg. “At the end of the day we need to score, which was always the case anyway. If it was 0-0, to win the game we’d have had to score. So the objective hasn’t changed that much. If we get a goal, we can maybe take it to extra time. Who knows? There is a belief. If you’re going down thinking the game’s over, we’ll get well and truly pumped, to put it nicely. We have to have that belief that we can go and do something and possibly get a result.

“What an opportunity. This is what you really live for in football. It’s a chance to go to Anfield, historically such a special place, and play against Liverpool, who have won the European Cup five times.”

MacDonald, for one, is confident of dealing with tiredness. He became a father for the first time the day before the Tynecastle match, and has had little sleep since.

“You feel tired, but my adrenalin has been buzzing all week,” he said. “It’s been the best week of my life. It’s such a happy time, I’m sure I can handle no sleep. If the baby was not going to come until the Thursday, I don’t think I would have missed the birth for the world. First child as well.– I would always put that first. But we were always confident that it wasn’t going to be the Thursday, and that Wednesday would have been the latest, which was the case. So it worked out all right in the end.

“The gaffer phoned me Wednesday night and asked how I felt. The missus was in hospital and I got a good sleep that night. I felt fresh on Thursday, popped into hospital to see them before the game, and I was on Cloud Nine and buzzing at the game.”

Meanwhile, Jose Enrique has urged Liverpool to show the same form against Hearts this week that almost stunned champions Manchester City at the weekend.

The Reds were deemed unlucky not to win Sunday’s clash at Anfield after leading twice, only to finish with a 2-2 draw when Martin Skrtel gifted Carlos Tevez a late equaliser with a dreadful passback.

With Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Glen Johnson restored to Brendan Rodgers’ side, the Anfield giants were much improved from their fortunate victory over Hearts Rodgers is expected to again ring the changes as he prepares for the visit of Arsenal in the league on Sunday. But Enrique is desperate to see Liverpool maintain the high standards they achieved, aside from the costly individual errors, against City. The defender said: “I think we did really well and we deserved to win. We made two mistakes and they punished us with two goals. But to get a point against Manchester City is not a bad result. This team was the best team in the league last year and we were better than them.

“Now are focusing on the next game. It’s in the past and now we have to think about the big games in the future. We have to keep playing like this.”

Taken from the Scotsman