Peter Haring believes Hearts should be in the Europa League and says the target needs to be reaching the competition regularly.
The Jambos face a massive night under the lights at Tynecastle this coming Thursday night as they big to reach the group stage of the competition. The clash is set up to be a blockbuster in the capital with Swiss champions FC Zurich coming to Edinburgh with a slender 2-1 advantage from last week's first meeting.
Outside of Celtic and Rangers, clubs in Scotland have struggled to make a real mark on the Europa League with none of the other sides reaching the tournament proper since it was revamped from the old UEFA Cup 12 years ago. Robbie Neilson's men now stand potentially just 90 minutes away from ending that rot in front of a packed out sell-out crowd. The Jambos know they are guaranteed group stage football in some capacity with the Europa Conference League fall back secured, but Haring says playing in the Europa League was the 'big target' when he signed for the club.
He said: “Should Hearts be in the Europa League? Definitely. There has been clubs playing in that competition that are not the size of Hearts. I said it before when I signed for Hearts that playing in the Europa League was a big big target.
“That’s where the club want to be and that’s the next step for us as a team. To be there regularly.”
Hearts go into the clash on the back of a 2-0 defeat to champions Celtic at Parkhead.
Neilson shuffled the pack, making seven changes, for the clash with one-eye on the Europa League meeting with FC Zurich on Thursday.
Haring is adamant there are positives to take into the Euro showdown, as he and his team-mates target a little bit of history and earn a spot in Friday's draw.
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He said: "As always Celtic was a really really tough game. One of the toughest places I’ve always been – and it’s always like that. But I think we dug in and defended really well and stuck to our game plan.
“Overall we caused them problems and asked some questions and overall it’s been a really good performance, especially defensively. I felt with a bit of luck we could have taken something out of the game.”
“Were there positives to take in to Zurich? Yes, 100 percent Especially with the changes we made against Celtic.
“All the boys who haven’t played as much recently were all outstanding. They worked their socks off for the team and overall we have to take the positives from the game. It has to give us confidence for Thursday. Definitely.
“We actually started the first half well. They scored with their first real opportunity and mentally that is really hard, when you start well and they score with their first real chance. But the way we reacted after that was really good.
“You don’t want to concede straight away again and we did really well to limit their chances. Second half we came out really good and had a period when they couldn’t really get out of their half. Then in the end, with two men sent off, it’s almost impossible to get a late goal.”
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