Sallinger Vows Hibs Won’t Suffer Hearts’ Fate
Raphael Sallinger spent Tuesday night in the Tynecastle stands watching Hearts endure a European humiliation. On Thursday, he intends to make sure Hibernian don’t suffer the same fate across the city.
Hearts’ 2-0 defeat to Sturm Graz sealed a brutal 6-0 aggregate exit from the Champions League, the heaviest two-legged loss in the club’s European history. It was a sobering evening for Edinburgh football.
For Sallinger, there was a twist. He was there as more than a rival keeping an eye on the neighbours.
“My missus actually works for Sturm Graz as a nutritionist so it was obviously clear for me to go and watch her at Tynecastle,” the Austrian goalkeeper explained. “She’s not over in Scotland very often. She’ll be at our game tomorrow as well to support me.”
He watched Hearts crumble. Now he walks into a similar pressure cooker.
Hibs trail 2-0 to Malisheva after a dismal first leg in Kosovo and face the very real prospect of an early exit from the Conference League before August is out. At Easter Road, against opponents they were widely expected to handle, that would sting.
Sallinger knows it. The dressing room knows it.
“We as a group spoke about a lot of things which went wrong in that game,” he said. “There are clearly things we can improve on, but we’ve worked very well this week.
“These are the moments where you can see what character is in this team and we will show that character tomorrow.”
The goalkeeper insists there is still frustration hanging in the air from that opening-leg defeat, but the response, he says, has been sharp. Training has carried an edge. Conversations have been honest. The margin for error is gone.
Sturm Graz, he points out, are no minnows. “Sturm are a very good team,” he said of the Austrians, who swept Hearts aside. “Of course there were a few conversations when we knew they were playing Hearts, but only about small details, nothing special. I’m happy for them that they went through.”
Happy for them, yes. Determined not to copy Hearts’ fate, even more so.
Hibs must find at least two goals at Easter Road just to drag the tie level, and do it without conceding to avoid a mountain becoming a cliff face. For a club that prides itself on European nights in Leith, bowing out to Malisheva would sit badly.
“It doesn’t matter which side we’re playing against,” Sallinger stressed. “The main target is getting through to the third round of the Conference League.
“We have to make sure we win tomorrow. We don’t want to look back too much on the last game. All we can do is look forward and try to change things around.”
Hearts have already provided the cautionary tale. Now it is Hibs’ turn under the floodlights, with their goalkeeper intent on making this an Edinburgh story with a very different ending.
