Robbie's reaction to Euro draw

08 February 2022

The boys in maroon finally discovered their Europa League play-off round opponents this afternoon following the draw at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
 
Hearts will square off against either Northern Irish side Linfield, or Swiss outfit FC Zurich – with a two-legged tie scheduled for the 18th and 25th August.
 
“Yeah, it’s a good draw for us,” the manager told Hearts TV.
 
“First and foremost, we have a derby coming up. It’s great that we have this European tie to look forward to, but we’ve got to take care of the derby first.
 
“It’s obviously a tight turnaround to prepare for this game, and that’s probably going to be the case right through until the World Cup, to be honest with you.
 
“Hence why we prepared during pre-season the way we did – Wednesdays and Saturdays and so on.  The boys are ready and looking forward to it.”
 
The manager knows a thing or two about representing Hearts in Europe – with Robbie a key figure in the Hearts sides that played on the continent in the early noughties, including our last group stage campaign back in the old Uefa Cup in the 2004/05 campaign.
 
Incidentally, he was the man who scored the winner on a famous night for the club on Swiss soil – defeating FC Basel 2-1 to secure a treasured European triumph.
 
“It was a long time ago, that!” he smiled. “Hopefully there can be more of the same – it would be fantastic if there was.
 
“This is where we want the club to be. We want to try and get Hearts into the Europa League. Against a lot of these teams, we’d fancy ourselves to go out and win the game. It’ll be brilliant for the club.”