Head coach Steven Naismith admits Viktoria Plzeň’s late winner doesn’t change what the Jambos need to do at Tynecastle Park on Thursday night if they want to find themselves competing in the Europa League moving forward.
It was a tight match in the Doosan Arena last Thursday and although the Jambos matched their opponents for much of the match, a late own goal saw the Czechs come out on top by a single goal.
Naismith believes a full house in Gorgie could be the difference in what he says will be another tight affair under the lights, as the men in maroon look to turn the tie around.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference, Naismith said:
“I think it’ll be a similar game to last week. But even before the game last week, as I called it, it was two teams that when they have the ball, will try and work an opportunity. We probably took a wee bit more time than them to settle into the game.
“But when we did, I thought we caused them problems. We need to be defensively better than we have been. I think last week, we were until the very last moment. They’ve got dangerous players that can cause you problems.
“The late goal doesn’t change the tie that much. We were always going to have to score this week if we wanted to go through. As I’ve said before, when Rosenborg came here, we had an early setback in the game, but we still fought and come out with a result.
“If we can start well and get the crowd behind us then we could have another night like Rosenborg.
“We’ll put out a team that we think can win the game. I think it’ll be another tight affair. We potentially want to be a bit more aggressive at times, but it’ll be a great night. If we can start well, the atmosphere will be good and the chance to get into the Europa League, outwith the Old Firm doesn’t happen that regularly.
"The goal at the end of this 90 or maybe 120 minutes is massive. The reward of it is massive. It's very rarely done for the teams outwith the Old Firm and we've got a great opportunity. We played a tie last week that we carried a threat in, we defended really well, until the last action of the game.
"It's within our grasp. We need to do things better than we have been doing domestically. It would be a fantastic achievement to get there. But like at any big club, there's pressure every week to play and stay on top of teams and it's about how you deal with the setbacks. We dealt with them very well last season and I expect the same this season."
You can watch Steven's press conference in full on Hearts TV.
