Blair Spittal has insisted Hearts will not give up on their Champions League dream despite a 4-0 first-leg defeat to Sturm Graz, as he revealed the feeling among the players after the match in Austria.
The giant scoreboards at either end of Sturm Graz’s Merkur Arena told the painful story of a 4-0 Hearts humbling. But for Spittal, the narrative on the park was nowhere near as bleak. The Gorgie playmaker still believes there could be a remarkable twist in this Tynecastle tale.
Stats back up Spittal's optimism
While Tuesday’s Champions League chastening was a harsh lesson in the levels required to compete in Europe’s top competition, Spittal reckons it would be wrong to suggest the Jambos took “a doing”. The stats back him up, with Hearts controlling 67 per cent of possession and matching Sturm’s six shots on target.
That’s why the 30-year-old refuses to accept the Tynecastle side should give up on their Champions League fairytale ahead of next week’s second leg in Gorgie. Spittal knows it will take something close to miraculous to overturn the four-goal deficit, and it will certainly require Wouter Vrancken’s side to be much better at both ends of the park after gifting goals and passing up huge chances of their own in Graz.
But Spittal reckons their performance on the ball gives them reason to believe heading into the return.
Spittal: 'I felt quite comfortable'
He said: “I actually felt quite comfortable. There were a few moments where they did create chances, hit the post and set plays caused us a wee bit of a problem. But in open play we created so many chances and it caused them a lot of bother.
“There were a lot of runs in behind and the boys up front did well, but we never took our chances and that's what happens.
“It’s just in the two boxes.. in the first half we create that many chances and we don't take them but at the same time, at the other end, we don't keep them out.
“So next week will be interesting. We've got to make sure we get a fast start. I don't think the tie is over based on how we played at times in the first half.
“It's easy to say for people at home that maybe didn't watch the game and will see the 4-0 scoreline. They think we’ve probably taken a bit of a doing. But it really didn't feel like that on the pitch. We were competing.
“To be honest, it felt like it was just a tale of missed chances and you get punished at the other end.”
Fast start needed at Tynecastle
That fast start Spittal refers to is a necessity back on home soil in the capital. Hearts actually flew out the traps in Austria and produced the first chance of the game before Graz were gifted the opener after just four minutes as Jon Gorenc Stankovic headed home Jeyland Mitchell’s long throw.
Vrancken’s men regrouped and bossed the majority of the first half with Alexandros Kyziridis and Landy Kabore guilty of wasting huge opportunities. But nine second-half minutes that Spittal dubbed “mental” saw the Bundesliga side blast into a 4-0 lead and leave Hearts on the brink.
Lessons need to be learned. And quickly. Spittal said: “It's nine minutes for the three goals in the second half. It's just mental.
“At that point you've got to try and gain a bit of control in the game. We don't do it, we probably make a few wrong decisions and ultimately they catch us on the break a couple of times and take their chances.
“In that nine minute period we went away from what we'd done in training. We started going a wee bit, not rogue, but away from what we had been doing to hurt them.
“We've probably done things a wee bit too quick in a few certain moments. Instead of just calming the game down.
“Obviously this level's hard when you've got a certain amount of time to take throw-ins and to kick when the goalie's got the ball in his hand. You're in a rush to play it.
“At that moment, it's important that we put our foot on the ball and try not to rush things.”
Tynecastle will be packed with punters hoping to witness one of the most magical comebacks in Gorgie history. Spittal said: “We have to start fast. Even on Tuesday night, they scored after four minutes but we had a chance just before it. You're thinking, ‘okay, here we go’. But it's just momentum. It's just a massive thing in football.”
