David Gray says his side are fully focused ahead of a huge European night at Easter Road, as Hibs welcome FK Partizan for the second leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League third qualifying round clash.
After a superb first-leg performance in Belgrade, Hibs go into the tie with a 2-0 lead on aggregate; however, Gray insists the job is far from done and has challenged his players to approach the game with the right mindset.
He said: “It is a brilliant game to look forward to, we’ve given ourselves a fantastic opportunity and all the players are desperate to be involved and looking forward to it.
“As far as I am concerned, it is half-time in the tie, there is a lot of football still to be played – we saw that from the first leg, how aggressive and energetic they were, even when they went down to 10-men.
“We know it’ll be a very tough test, so the mindset has to be to address the game as if it were nil-nil and to put a plan together to win the game on the night.”
FK Partizan picked up an impressive victory at the weekend – winning 7-2 in the league – and Gray is wary of the dynamic attacking threat that the Serbian side will pose.
“They will be very aggressive from the start, the onus is on them to come out and try to score goals because of the first leg result. In that game, they went down to 10-men and still attacked in the same way, they are young, fearless and have a lot of quality within their side.
“They had a real positive result on Sunday, so we know we are in for a challenging night – but we need to take a lot of confidence from our recent European performances, and if we can replicate that, then we could be in for a very special night.
“We need to make sure we react to certain moments in the game – whether that is in moments of adversity, or making sure we don’t switch off. The challenge right from kick-off is to go and win the game on the night, if we do that, we know we will be in the next round – it is as straightforward as that.”
Hibs are set for another capacity crowd at Easter Road tomorrow, with the match approaching a sell-out. Gray emphasised the important role that the fans can play on the night to get us over the line.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the fans, to sell the Stadium out again is another incredible effort. Never underestimate the power of the fans and how big an impact they will have – they can be the 12th man, like they were in the Midtjylland game.
“They spurred us on right until the very end in that one, and we will need them again on Thursday night. Hopefully, it can be another special European night at Easter Road.”
