Johannes Hoff Thorup insists Hearts are under just as much pressure as Rapid Vienna in Wednesday's winner-takes-all Europa Conference League clash, despite the Austrians being odds-on favourites to progress.
Last week's 2-2 draw at Tynecastle leaves the tie finely poised ahead of the second leg at the Allianz Stadion, where the victors secure a £5m Conference League jackpot.
Thorup dismisses favourites tag
Thorup, whose side finished fifth in the Bundesliga last season, said: "Good question. I hope that both teams have pressure. Otherwise it would be a bit boring to be in the football world. Hearts had a fantastic season and when you are so close and you have the chance for even bigger competitions than the Conference League, you hope for that."
"This is the last chance. We did everything we could last season to just get into the qualification for the Conference League, so this is also our last chance. Where is the most pressure? We have to enjoy it."
The former Norwich City boss added: "Expectations and stuff like that, we don't really take that in. We focus on ourselves. If people expect us to go through that's probably because we are a good football team. I take that as a compliment."
Hearts' long-range threat
Thorup expects his side to dominate possession on home turf but is wary of Hearts' ability to score from distance, as James Wilson proved with his 30-yard strike that opened the scoring last week.
He said: "Hearts will bring quite a bit of energy. But we showed as a team and the way we play, we can dominate them. I was especially pleased with how few chances they had. Most of their shots came from big distance. But of course they have a weapon from big distance, which we have to be aware of. It's not only him (Wilson). It's probably the team that we have played against in Europe but also domestic league that takes the most shots from positions where we don't see it that often."
Atmosphere warning
Rapid expect the 24,000-capacity Allianz Stadion to be close to a sell-out for the showdown, and Thorup has warned Hearts that the home ultras will maintain the noise for the full 90 minutes.
He said: "For Hearts it was more like the moments of the game where there could really be noise. But it can also be the opposite, which we also spoke about at half-time. For example, the last 15 minutes where we really control the game, there's not much noise at the stadium."
"At our stadium it's a little bit different. There's full support for 90 minutes and it can be sometimes not really dependent on the result of the game. We'll be there for 90 minutes and it's something that we really use because in our best moments - it normally gives us the energy to survive it, but also to really benefit from it in the good moments."
