Neil Critchley insists Hearts are eyeing a second Scottish Bundesliga bashing in just three days against Heidenheim on Thursday night.
The Jambos welcome the Germans to Tynecastle on matchday three of the Conference League with both sides boasting 100 per cent records. Celtic dealt RB Leipzig a Champions League bloody nose on Tuesday night. And Critchley says his Hearts stars are capable of backing it up with their own statement win in Gorgie.
He said: “I watched that game last night and I thought Celtic were very good. I enjoyed watching that game. Celtic were fully deserving of their victory, I thought they were excellent on the night. Hopefully we can be the next Scottish team to win against German opposition.
“We’ve made a good start to the tournament and we have to capitalise on that. We are at home. We’re trying to take another step forward and get three points. If we do that, we’ll be in a really positive position.
“I’m not looking any further than Heidenheim because we know the difficult task we’ve got in front of us. It would be foolish to start looking ahead and planning ahead. Hopefully, the supporters are doing that for some of their away trips, but for us, we’re solely focused on Thursday night and the job we’ve got in front of us.”
Heidenheim’s rise from the seventh tier of German football into the Bundesliga last season has been one of the most remarkable stories in European football in recent years. It’s made all the more incredible by the fact manager Frank Schmidt has been at the helm for the past 17 of those – since taking over in 2007 when the club languished in the fifth tier.
Critchley has done his homework on the club – and knows Hearts will need to step up the levels even from that which comfortably saw off Omonia two weeks ago in Gorgie. He said: “We’ll need a very strong mentality. Heidenheim, because they’re used to winning games and having success, they know how to manage games very well, winning or losing.
“They have a maturity in how they play the game. We have to make sure that, yes, we want to play with emotion, we want to play with intensity, we want to get the supporters behind us, but also we have to manage periods of the game.
“Like we did against Omonia, we started off very well, but in the second half Omonia showed their quality and we had to make sure we managed that period of the game without the ball, and we did that very well. I want to bring a mentality here that every game is important, home and away, whoever we’re playing against, this is us and this is how we attack the game.
“Winning, preparing properly, training properly, breeds that winning mentality that it doesn’t matter who you’re playing against and what competition you’re in, it becomes a consistent way of behaviour, a collective way of thinking, a collective way of behaving. Therefore, as a club, we know what we stand for, we know what to expect.
That doesn’t mean we’re going to win every game, but we can guarantee certain things every time we set foot on the pitch. So far, we’ve done that. We’ve got to do it again on Thursday if we want to win.”
Tynecastle was rocking two weeks ago when Omonia were put to the sword. And Critchley can’t wait for a repeat.
He said: “Without a doubt. We want this to be a hostile, intimidating atmosphere where no one wants to come here and play. Horrible. So, Tynie will be on fire Thursday night and I hope it’s not a nice experience for our opponents who are coming in.”
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