Sauzee ready for a
final fling at Europe
Franck winning fitness race for
AEK tie - STUART CROWTHER
FRANCK
SAUZEE IS WINNING HIS
fight to be fit for the crunch UEFA Cup tie at Easter Road tomorrow
evening against AEK Athens - and that is just another boost for the Easter
Road side striving to repeat European feats of old.
Sauzee missed the first leg in Athens last week,
declaring himself unfit after sustaining an injury in Hibs 5-1 league win
over Dunfermline. The Hibs skipper however trained alone on Monday
before joining the rest of the squad yesterday with no apparent ill
effects - signalling a return for what most believe is Hibs most
influential skipper since Pat Stanton. "Franck trained
today and he was very positive afterwards,"
Hibs boss Alex McLeish confirmed yesterday, adding: "We will
see how he is on Wednesday and Franck will be his usual honest self if he
feels he can't make it."
Sauzee looks likely to win his fitness battle (sns)
While
Hibs will be without the services of Gary Smith, McLeish is far from
worried with his squad already showing that they have a great deal of
depth that was perhaps not present last season. And with an sell-out
17,500 fans in Easter Road for the tie, things are shaping up for a great
night in the Capital, with McLeish saying: "If
we get an early goal and it is a full house, then their composure could
go." AEK arrive in
Edinburgh today confident that their two goal lead from Athens will be
sufficient to see them through to the next round - but that is a
confidence that a few teams in the past have brought to Easter Road, only
to find that Hibs can, when the mood takes them, make the impossible look
easy.
Former
Hibee Peter Cormack, currently manager of Morton, remembers one such night
when Hibs turned over a 4-1 deficit against Napoli at Easter Road.
He said: "Against Napoli Bobby Duncan scored in
the first five minutes and that gave the crowd a huge lift. We had
taken a real hammering over in Italy and no one thought we could get
through."
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