Hearts manager Wouter Vrancken says his players cannot wait for Conference League glamour dates with Monaco and Mo Salah - and insists they fully believe they can qualify for the knockouts.
The Jambos have been drawn at home to Ligue 1 giants Monaco and away to former Liverpool hero Salah's Trabzonspor, as well as ties against Nordsjaelland and Borac at Tynecastle and Pafos and Thun away. It is reward for Wednesday night's heroic penalty shoot-out victory over Rapid Vienna in Austria, where Vrancken's side fought back from a goal down and a man down to win through.
Players' reaction to the draw
The Hearts squad watched Friday's draw together at their Oriam training base. Ahead of tomorrow's clash with St Johnstone in Gorgie, the manager said: "Yeah, we watched it together. It's quite nice for them. Everybody's looking forward to the games.
"Everybody had his favourite opponents. So I think Monaco was, especially with the French-speaking guys, one of them. And facing Mo Salah is also a nice thing for a lot of guys. It was a good moment together."
Belief and tough opponents
Hearts will find out the dates and order of their six Conference League matches over the weekend. Vrancken added: "It's a tough draw, most of all because of Pot 5 and Pot 6. We have the best teams of those two pots, Nordsjaelland and Thun. They're two good sides.
"You have always two big games, 100 per cent two big games. And we have them. And then you have the games, you hope that you have the little ones so that you can also have more chance to take your points. It's always difficult in Europe.
"But when you don't have the belief, then maybe don't participate in the competition. It's amazing that we are getting there, that we can play until December, January in Europe already. This is one goal, one nice thing that we did. And now you're in the competition, you don't just play these games to play the games and to participate. You want to play with the belief that you can go to the next round. And this is the goal you have to have."
Injury concerns and new signing
Hearts are still waiting to discover the extent of Tom Renaud's injury after the French midfielder was stretchered off in Vienna with an ankle injury. Renaud was due for a scan on Friday afternoon, and Vrancken will leave his team selection to face Saints as late as possible with a few of his Euro heroes carrying knocks.
He said: "Tom has his scan this afternoon, so hopefully something tomorrow. But he will not be for this weekend or next weekend. For sure, just hoping that it's OK for him, but it doesn't look good.
"Harry Milne and Ageu were back in training for the first time today with the team. Hopefully Ageu can also get the rhythm fast and his quality there. So we'll see step by step again. Some are more tired than others from Wednesday. We'll see tomorrow who's fit and ready, that we don't take unnecessary risks, but also we want to be as good as we can.
"I don't understand actually why our game is not on Sunday, because we have a Thursday game next week, so you have three days in between. Now it's two days, four days, and it's scientifically proven. I think everybody can read and search articles that when you do everything that you need, taking your care, physio, sleep, food, and you do everything what you need to do as a professional, then you can be recovered in three days' rest. But it's scientifically proven that it's not possible in two days' rest when you play a full game."
New striker JJ Williams could also be unleashed against Saints after sealing his £100,000 move from Rhode Island in the States this week. Vrancken added: "It's a possibility, yeah, because he has been playing also with Rhode Island already in the league, 18 games or something like that.
"So, yeah, he doesn't need physical adaptation anymore. Only adaptation is the connection with his teammates. It's good that it's at Tynecastle, because of the extra energy the crowd will give you, the fans will give you, and they can push you forward, you can make the extra step because of the fans supporting you. We have to go into it with all our energy, otherwise when we lose the energy, then we lose our quality also."
