We can pull off a famous
victory!
It's a massive job - but
Hibernian are up to the task - STUART CROWTHER
HIBERNIAN FACE A MASSIVE TASK at Easter Road this evening, but win or
lose the Easter Road support will be backing Alex McLeish's side all the
way. It is promising to be a great night in the capital city, but no
Hibs fan in the packed Easter Road stands will forget that this is a side
that has shown steady improvement since McLeish arrived - and will
continue to do so.
Everything to smile about - Alex McLeish yesterday afternoon (sns)
Experience is the name of the game for Hibs, gaining valuable knowledge of
what football at this level is all about. McLeish of course as a
player has seen and done it all in European and international terms, as
has his skipper Franck Sauzee who will return to the side to face AEK.
A two goal deficit is a difficult but far from impossible task however,
and with a great deal of passion, no small amount of skill and a
sprinkling of luck, Hibs might just get a little extra experience on the
European stage this season! The heat of Athens took much out of his
side, but the cooler temperatures of Edinburgh in September will suit Hibs
much more, just another factor that leads Hibs boss McLeish to believe
that this will be a great night for Hibernian. He said: "The
climate will suit us certainly more than it did in Athens last week, so we
will keep it at a fast tempo and try and sustain that. The heat in Athens
affected us more than people realise, it takes a lot out of the players in
that humidity and that I think contributed in the loss of our goals. It is
difficult for people to comprehend, unless you are out there, just how
much the conditions can take out of players. I was pleased with the
performance there, 2-0 was not I think a fair reflection on the game."
What
Hibs cannot afford to do is allow AEK to dictate the flow of the game, as
that could quickly silence the 17,000 Hibs fans in the sold-out stands.
McLeish said: "We must though be positive in
this game, and we also know of course that we must keep the back door
shut! We have to be cautious but we don't want to be apprehensive either.
We want to be sensible, but we can't allow them to settle into their style
of play. We need to knock them out of their stride. There is a lot
of experience in AEK, there coach has been very prominent in terms of
success. He changed a few things at half time last week and they upped the
tempo a bit. But we can pull off a famous victory. They keep telling us
that the Greeks don't travel and I have to take note of that, they have
not done well away from home in Europe but by the same token they have
considerably more experience than Hibs at this level."
AEK coach Santos arrives in Edinburgh (sns)
Another telling factor for Hibernian will be that packed crowd, but asked
if this might also prove intimidating for the AEK side, McLeish brushed
such thoughts aside, saying: "I don't think the AEK
players will be intimidated by our full capacity at Easter Road, they've
seen that before and come through it. But it will be interesting if the
crowd give our guys a sufficient lift and get the adrenalin going, and if
we get a goal it may effect AEK's composure. I would see the crowd as
being a massive lift for us rather than intimidating for them."
Hibs
have a wealth of riches in the squad brought together by McLeish, and in
particular with his strikers all of whom are bang on form with competition
for starting places as tight as has ever been seen at the club. It
seems likely that Hibs will at some point give all of their strikers a
chance at producing the required goals against AEK, that fact confirmed by
McLeish when he told Hibs.net: "Yes this is a
game that we must approach positively, and it's likely that we will be
using all our strikers during the course of the night to get the goals we
need." But McLeish was giving
no clues as to who would start the game up front, although the clever
money is on Craig Brewster teaming up with Paco Luna, the Hibs boss
possibly coming down in favour of experience and saving the pace of Tam
McManus for later in the tie.
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