The Scotsman Bulletin Friday August 18 2023 #Sport #Football #Europe

The Scotsman

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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.

05:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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