Hibernians’ coach Branko Nisevic believes that his team’s UEFA Conference League tie against Slovakian side Spartak Trnava will be a perfect barometer to gauge his team’s level of competitiveness ahead of the start of the new season.
The Paolites, last season’s FA Trophy winners, will kick off their European campaign in the second qualifying round against Spartak Trnava at the Tony Bezzina Stadium this evening (kick-off: 6pm).
The Serbian coach is aware of the strength of his opponents but is urging his players to give everything they have to try and keep alive the tie ahead of next week’s second leg in Slovakia.
“Spartak Trnava is a familiar opponent for our club as we have already played against them in recent years,” said Nisevic, referring to Paolites’ clashes with the Slovakian side in the Europa League in 2014 and 2016.
“On both occasions, Spartak Trnava managed to progress to the next round but this time we will do our best to make life more difficult for them.
“This summer, we made several changes to our squad, bringing in new players, and we intend to try and integrate them into the squad as quickly as possible.
“The main goal for us tomorrow is to keep alive the tie before next week’s second leg, so the goal is to try to win or draw or maybe lose by just one goal to give ourselves an opportunity.
“We have some foreigners who joined with us a bit late so their fitness is a bit of a question mark, but apart from all of these little problems, I am really looking forward to the tie as it will give us a clear picture of the value of our team and identify areas where we need to improve before the start of the league championship.”
Nisevic admitted that the fact that he kept the majority of the players from last season was a major advantage, as he had a good base to start his preparations for the new season.
“The fact that the club has reconfirmed several players from last season is good because at least we didn’t have to start from scratch,” Nisevic said.
“We did lose a couple of foreign players like Kevin Fraga and Apostolos Martinis, but we managed to bring in players of the same kind of level and who will hopefully be able to give us something more.
Team backbone
“The most important thing for us is that we kept the backbone of the team from last season and there is hope that the new additions will give an added dimension to our team.
“Obviously, in the past week, we lost Kurt Shaw, and now we will see if we can replace him with some of the players we have in our squad, as I think we have four or five options, or enter the market.”
Asked what kind of challenge he is expecting from Spartak Trnava, Nisevic said that the Slovakian side has changed a lot from last season and will offer a major challenge.
“Spartak Trnava is a very good team, no doubt about that,” Nisevic said.
“We will approach the match with no fear, but at the same time, we will give them the respect they deserve.
“We had the opportunity to see them in the Europa League against BK Hacken and it seems that they have changed a bit from last season. They play with a back three and are very attack-minded.
“They have some quality players like Roman Prohaska, and they are very strong in set-pieces and are very dangerous in transitions, so we need to be careful, but I can assure our fans that we will try and give everything we have to try and get a positive result.”
On his part, Bjorn Kristensen, the Hibernians captain who has just penned a new contract with the club, said that playing in Europe is the dream of every player and will be a great opportunity for the players to see where they are ahead of the start of the season.
“Playing in Europe is very important for our club and also presents a good opportunity to attract good players to our club,” Kristensen said.
“For us players, playing in Europe is a great motivation. I think it’s an honour for me to lead the team in a UEFA club competition.
“Our preparation has only started four or five weeks ago, so we have yet to reach our best condition, but slowly we are getting there.
“Not everyone is yet at 100 per cent in terms of condition, but we want to use these matches to set a strong marker before the start of the new season.”
