Waler Smith thinks he has a good enough squad for the European challenge ahead.
Smith has not dismissed the idea of Kaunas, who are backed by Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, making it to the second qualification round by overcoming their two-goal deficit. He said: "It was a good result for Zeta but they put themselves under a little bit of pressure by losing the away goal. Kaunas were the physically stronger team and having home advantage they'll feel they can get back. There wasn't much between the teams on the night, Kaunas had a player sent off in the first half and that gave the advantage to Zeta and they used that to the full by going three up, although they allowed Kaunas to score and that could be costly." Another friendly looms at Ibrox tonight with Dutch giants Ajax the visitors before former English champions Chelsea visit Glasgow on Saturday. Smith claims those stiff tests will set his side up perfectly for the first leg of the European tie. Smith said: "The two friendlies we've got we picked on an intentional basis because they will be difficult games as they are a good standard of teams we'll be playing. That is what we wanted to get the required edge in our game considering we go into a very important fixture in just over a week's time. It puts a bit of importance on the games from our own point of view in terms of making sure we have our squad up to full match fitness and I'm sure they will be tested to the full in these two games. Match fitness and sharpness is another thing and all the teams we are playing are striving towards that, but the necessity for us is maybe greater because we have an important games far earlier. We couldn't have two harder fixtures to bring us up to the competitive edge." | |||
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