Liam Boyce insists Hearts have set the bar for Europe with their display against FC Zurich which had everything but a bit of luck.
The Jambos striker lamented a host of missed chances during a 1-0 loss to the Swiss champions which ended their Europa League hopes as they fell into the safety net of a Conference League group spot and the guarantee of £5million which it brings. Despite the 3-1 aggregate exit from UEFA’s secondary competition, Boyce is adamant their Tynecastle showing on Thursday night is proof they’re ready to meet the continent’s handiest teams – in Fiorentina, Istanbul Basaksehir and RFS – head on.
He said: “When I first came to the club we had been relegated, we went down a league and came back up so it shows you how far we have come. We are disappointed because of how well we played in the first half but we now have six European games to look forward to.
“It’s going to be brilliant to have more nights like that. I’m not involved in the business side of things but you can see our squad this season and the way we’ve brought in more quality players and made the team better. It’s put us in a good position to attack these games.
“We just need to take belief from that, keep learning and keep 11 men on the pitch. Then we’ll have a chance. When I played international football, what was good about it was being able to go and play against the best teams and see how good you are.
“We played against the Swiss champions and played very well after defending well in the first leg. We need to take belief from how well we played and when we do the right things we will cause anyone problems.
“Even with the chances we were missing, you still saw our fans cheering us on. They kept pushing so if we’d taken one chance in the first half it would have been a completely different game.”
The loss to Zurich hinged on two key moments. The first was when Jorge Grant was sent off after his second booking for a dive in the box. But Boyce also admits his own first-half header which went over the bar was also a sliding door moment in the tie.
He said: “I was already thinking about celebrating to be honest. You head the ball down and into the ground as the keeper has less chance of saving it. I just couldn’t believe the ball bounced that high. I thought the ball was already in so it’s a sore one.
“We were in the position of getting plenty of crosses into the box but we didn’t take our chances. We had good phases of play and Alan Forrest had a chance as well when I slipped him in. The Zurich defender does unbelievably well to get over and block his shot.
"It was one of those things where it could have gone through someone’s legs but that’s the most disappointing thing – that we just didn’t capitalize on those chances when we were really good.”
The 31-year-old confessed a closer analysis of their failure to reach the Europa League group stage isn’t just about disappointment but also a need to be more clinical and the need to keep 11 players on the pitch. He said: “We spoke as a group after the game and said we can be proud of what we’ve achieved.
“After that first half especially, we were very good. We dominated for that 45 minutes but we just didn’t take our chances. I had a big one with the header but if we’d scored then it would have changed the whole game.
“Zurich couldn’t seem to handle us, they were just kicking the ball long as we had them hemmed in. We went out in the second half and tried to do the same again but the red card changed everything.
“I don’t know if it was a penalty or a dive as I haven’t seen it back again. That changes games in Europe as you can’t get that press on with 10 men.
“We have gone from having them rattled and kicking it long but then we had 10 men and any opponent looks better with a man advantage. Zurich appeared more composed and we couldn’t get the press on them anymore as we’d have been leaving one of their men open.
“In the end they took full advantage of it.”
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