Hearts set to step on European minefield

HEARTS new coach Alexei Mikhailichenko starts off his Tynecastle tenure with a Champions League second-round qualifier that may stir memories of what befell Gordon Strachan when Celtic met Artmedia Bratislava last summer.

The Ukrainian will be made explicitly aware by club owner Vladimir Romanov that such failure cannot happen. Murrayfield, after all, has been rented out in anticipation of a European run. But when the draw is made in Nyon on Friday, a tie as awkward as the one which proved too much for Celtic cannot be entirely discounted.
As with Strachan's side a year ago, Hearts are seeded for the second-round qualifiers, to be played on July 26-27 and the following midweek. They will therefore avoid such pedigree performers as Fenerbahce, Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Kiev and Dinamo Zagreb. More importantly though Mikhailichenko will inherit a playing core whose great match-winning strength has been developed over years playing together.

That strength would be tested by Salzburg, one of several of teams Hearts should hope to avoid. The Austrian club have been thinking big this summer, appointing Giovanni Trapattoni and Lothar Matthaus as their management team. While the Tynecastle side are relying on Romanov to fly them high in world football's premier club competition, Salzburg are looking to sponsors Red Bull to give them wings.

Czech club Mlada Boleslav are another team that might pose the Gorgie men difficulties because of the relative strength of playing standards in that country. Hailing from a town better known for its Skoda car factory, they claimed second place in only their second season following promotion to the upper tier.

If Artmedia could prove a tough nut for both halves of the Old Firm to crack then SCP Ruzomberok, the side that toppled them in the Slovakian championship, can hardly be taken lightly.

Ekranas Panerezys would be mightily intriguing opponents. They earned a place in the Champions League through preventing Romanov's hometown club Kaunas registering a sixth straight Lithuanian title success. The old order is well on its way to being restored, however. Kaunas are 14 points clear of the defending champions after 13 games of their summer season.

The names of two more possible draws for Hearts will provoke grimacing among some other Scottish football supporters. The Finnish club My-Pa 47 ended Dundee United's interest in the UEFA Cup last year. Icelanders Hafnarfjordur, meanwhile, accounted for Dunfermline in a UEFA Cup qualifier little under a year ago. The Tynecastle men are superior in every way to these vanquished Scottish sides, but Celtic's experience 12 months ago is a warning they would do well to heed.

Taken from the Scotsman