Robbie Neilson determined to stop Hearts’ minds wandering to Fiorentina

Latvia Soccer Europa Conference League
(Image credit: Roman Koksarov)

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has cautioned his players to focus on Fir Park rather than Fiorentina.

Neilson’s men added intrigue to their upcoming Tynecastle encounter with the Italian side when they beat RFS 2-0 in Latvia to move second in their Europa Conference League group.

The Serie A side drew with the Latvians in their first game before suffering a heavy defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir, just like Hearts in their opener.

Hearts now have the chance to put themselves in a commanding position in the group when they take on Fiorentina on October 6 but they first travel to Lanarkshire to face Motherwell on Sunday.

Steven Hammell’s side sit level on 10 points with Hearts in the cinch Premiership and Hearts have lost three of their last four domestic games.

Neilson said of Thursday’s European win on Hearts TV: “Having played Istanbul, I think they will run away with the group because they are a top, top team.

“But it puts us in a great position. We are sitting second in the group, which is brilliant for us.

“But we are at Fir Park on Sunday and we need to focus on that because it’s the league campaign that gets us nights like that, so we have to get back to winning ways in the league.”