Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has insisted that his team are fully focused on tomorrow’s game against Celtic despite having the second leg of their Europa play-off against Zurich to look forward to on Thursday.
The Jambos’ took the lead at the Kybun Park in St Gallen with a Lawrence Shankland penalty, before being pegged back with two quick goals in as many minutes, but Neilson believes that his side won’t be distracted by the crunch tie at Tynecastle.
As reported by Edinburgh Live, the Hearts manager said: “Our focus is totally on Celtic, we stayed overnight in Switzerland on Thursday, it’s about recovery and making sure we’re in as good a condition as possible. If you don’t bring 100 per cent then you’ll get turned over.
“Our objective this season is the same as last season. We spoke about it: ‘Can we go to Glasgow and win?’ It’s been a long time since we’ve done that and Sunday is an opportunity.”
“There is no point in going there thinking: ‘Let’s put this game to bed then we can look forward to Thursday.’ We want to try and go there and win.”
The Edinburgh side already have guaranteed European group stage football for the first time since 2004-05, and despite the chance to reach the Europa League proper for the first time since its rebrand from the UEFA Cup, Neilson isn’t looking to make wholesale changes tomorrow.
He said: “The league form last year got us into Europe and we need to do that again so we go to Parkhead and we need to be ready.
“We might make a couple of changes but not massive because we’ll try and win that game. Once we are through that we’ll try and focus on the home leg against Zurich next Thursday.
“We had already started preparing for Celtic. As a staff we know what we’re going to do. We’ve been there numerous times and know it’s going to be difficult.”
Hearts will likely be without key defender Craig Halkett who was forced off after just five minutes of the game against Zurich on Thursday.
Hearts beat Celtic at Tynecastle in Ange Postecoglou’s first league match in Scotland but lost both games at Paradise last season on their way to a third placed finish – as well as a Premier Sports Cup tie early in the season.
The Jambos haven’t won at Celtic Park in any competition since a League Cup victory in 2009, and last won a league match in Paradise in 2007 with Celtic having already secured the title the week before.
Here’s hoping this is a record that continues as the champions look to make it four straight wins for the season tomorrow.
In other news: Celtic hold advantage on Haksabanovic despite 4 team chase; agreement close
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