The Scotsman Bulletin Friday August 18 2023 #Sport #Football #Europe
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday. I'm Alan Young, I am
00:08 Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and joined today by our Sport Editor Mark Atkinson to take
00:13 a look back at a dramatic night and the weekend ahead. Hi Mark.
00:17 Good morning Alan.
00:18 Let's have a look at the front page first however. And we lead today on a story from
00:25 our Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson and this is again around funding for the arts
00:31 and warnings that some organisations going forward just won't be funded at all by Creative
00:37 Scotland. They are expecting £113 million worth of applications and only have a funding
00:46 pot of £45 million. So there's a lot of concern, especially during festival time, about how
00:53 we are going to be funding the arts in the future. The picture on the front page there
00:58 is quite incredible. That is the face of Bonnie Prince Charlie as he looked during the Jacobite
01:05 Uprising. It has been created by scientists at Dundee University who used a death mask
01:14 and then scanned it and then de-aged him. It's quite a story. All that in today's paper,
01:23 including our daily festival supplement, which is not to be missed. But Mark, what
01:29 I want to speak to you about is a dramatic night for Scottish clubs in Europe.
01:34 Yeah, what a night. What a night for Edinburgh football, really. Hearts and Hibs both making
01:41 it through to the playoff round of the Europa Conference League. Hearts winning at Tynecastle,
01:47 a delirious Tynecastle last night, by three goals to one, four to three in aggregate against
01:50 Rosenborg. And Hibs, who went to Switzerland with a 3-1 advantage to play Luzern, they
01:57 drew two all in Switzerland last night and they are through as well. So, yeah, great
02:02 times for Scottish clubs in Europe.
02:04 That obviously follows on from Rangers earlier in the week as well. But I think even the
02:12 most optimistic of football fans wouldn't have expected all three to get through.
02:19 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We go into the final qualifying stage of the European tournaments,
02:25 the Champions League, the Conference League and the Europa League, with four clubs trying
02:30 to get into the group stages, with Celtic already in the Champions League group stages.
02:33 So it's not unprecedented, it has happened before, but not for a long, long time. And
02:40 while it's going to be very tough for these clubs to get through, which we'll talk about
02:44 in a second, who they're playing, it's great to have this amount of success. It does wonders
02:50 for our coefficient, it keeps the European places as they are, and it brings in money
02:56 and it brings in confidence and our game is in a decent place.
03:00 And you hinted at what's up next and it's a particularly mouth-watering tie for Hibs
03:06 fans.
03:07 It is. Let's start with Hibs. They play Aston Villa, which is a very, very difficult tie.
03:12 Aston Villa were strong last season under Unai Emery and they've spent a lot of money
03:16 over the summer. Their captain is Scotland midfielder and former Hibs player John McGinn.
03:22 So there's a great storyline about him coming back to Easter Road with the villains. I mean,
03:28 a very, very difficult tie for Hibs indeed.
03:31 Hearts don't have it easy either. They're playing Pawok, who are a team from Thessaloniki
03:36 in Greece. They play at the Toumba Stadium, which sounds ominous, and they call it the
03:41 Black Hell. So it'll be very hot, humid and particularly hostile for Hearts when they
03:47 go to Greece in a couple of weeks.
03:48 Aberdeen are in the Europa League and they found out their opponents last night. They
03:52 play the Swedish team BK Haken, who are a decent outfit. They're playing some good football.
03:59 They're renowned for good scouting at the moment. That won't be easy, although Aberdeen
04:03 are guaranteed a Conference League group stage place if they lose. And Rangers play PSV in
04:09 Champions League qualifier as well next week.
04:13 All very difficult ties, but again, fantastic to have them all represented at this stage.
04:20 So before we get into that, though, there's big weekend of domestic action, including
04:27 some cup ties. And as an Aberdeen fan, I'm very, very nervous about tonight's game.
04:33 Yes, so Aberdeen, this is their first cup tie since Darvel. Of course, we all know what
04:38 happened there. They play Sterling Albion at Forth Bank this evening. Not an easy tie.
04:42 Sterling topped their group. They beat Stoke-on-Trent 4-0 at MacDermid Park earlier in the group
04:47 stages. Look, Aberdeen were impressive against Celtic in defeat last weekend. You would expect
04:52 they've learned the lessons, but it's not going to be or it could be a difficult evening
04:57 for them. But you'd still expect them to get through. A lot of the best games are on Sunday
05:01 because of the European involvement. Before that, we've got Rangers play Morton on Saturday
05:07 lunchtime and there's games involving Sipmere against Motherwell. We've got Airdrie against
05:12 Ross County as well. And then on Sunday, Kilmarnock Celtic at Rugby Park. That's a good looking
05:18 tie and not an easy one for Celtic. Kilmarnock and Celtic could be very struggling. The two
05:23 Edinburgh clubs are going to be very, very tired. They've got banana skins, both in Edinburgh.
05:27 Hearts are at home to Partick and Hibs play Rafe Rovers, whose manager is their former
05:33 captain Ian Murray.
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