David Gray

Daily Record

6 hours ago

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David Gray admits Hibs are up against it in their bid to reach the revamped group stages of the Europa League after being drawn against Danish side Midtjylland.
The Hibees were on course to land a Europa League play-off spot that would have also guaranteed them group stage football in the revamped Conference League next season only for Aberdeen's shock Scottish Cup victory against Celtic to trump their third place finish in the Premiership.
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The capital clip will make the trip out to Denmark on July 24 before hosting the Superliga outfit in Leith seven days later. They will face a Midtjylland team that only missed out on back-to-back league titles by a point last season and competed in the Champions League group stages as recently as the 2020/21 campaign.
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The unseeded Easter Road club could have also been handed tough ties against Anderlecht, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sheriff Tiraspol and boss Gray concedes the draw has not been kind to them.
He said: 'I think it's one of the tougher opponents but I think because of the position we've found ourselves in being unseeded you're always going to get a tough draw.
'So the other side to looking at is it's a brilliant game you're going to test yourself against. They're a very good side, second in the league last season, missed out by a point.
'There were in the Champions League the year before I know they didn't quite make it (to the group stages) but then went into the latter stages of the Europa League.
'They're a very good side, they've always been successful. So it'll be a challenge but a brilliant day and a brilliant fight to look forward to.
'This is the reward for the success of last season and how well we've done last season to get ourselves in the European position.
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'The reward is you go and play yourself in a different culture, a different league against a team that's a very good team that's played in the Champions League, with Champions League players.
So another brilliant opportunity to test ourselves again. These are the games you want to play.'
Midtylland kick off their domestic campaign just four days before the first leg and Gray insists it will be on all hands on deck gathering information on their opponents.
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He added: 'This is something we'll need to do now. Now we know the next stage we'll clearly be looking at the way they play and we'll do all our analysis like we do for every team.
'The good thing is as we've got a lot of time now to turn it around. It's different when you're going week to week and you're running out of time to try and find out information, not knowing your opponent.
'We've got a lot of time to work all that out, we'll definitely put all our efforts into getting as much information as we can.'
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Despite the size of task facing his team, Gray knows his side are more than capable of causing an upset after beating both Celtic and Rangers on their way to finishing third last season.
Gray, whose team will drop into the Conference League qualifiers if they are knocked out by the Danes, added: 'I think you need to be confident in the group. I think that comes from the type of players we've got and wanting to test ourselves and wanting to improve all the time.
"I'm sure the boys will really look forward to this one as will I and the rest of the staff. And it'll be a brilliant day for the supporters as well.
'I remember going over to Brondby and playing over there, the atmosphere with a lot of the fans and the reaction we got after that was it was a brilliant trip and a fantastic one for everyone to get excited about.
'I'm sure the fans will already be doing that now that they've seen the draw. It's a great game as I've just said to go and test yourself again.'