news-engine

Exclusive:The Hearts mindset for Benfica and Tomas Magnusson's role Icelandic midfielder eager to play his part in Europe A fractured cheekbone caused Tomas Magnusson to miss the end of Hearts’ Premiership title charge last season. He had to watch that horrible conclusion at Celtic Park from the sidelines. Then his manager, captain and several influential team-mates left. Then came that Champions League skelping by Sturm Graz. Then the late collapse at Aberdeen. Now it’s Benfica in Lisbon. The Icelander must wonder when things are going to get easier. Compounding Magnusson’s recent difficulties is the fact he is being used sparingly by new Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken thus far. He came on as a substitute after 84 minutes against Sturm in Austria and was an unused sub in the return leg at Tynecastle Park. The Scottish Premiership opened on Saturday at Aberdeen, with Magnusson introduced as an 80th-minute replacement for Blair Spittal. He isn’t one to complain at the restricted game time. “I'm just being patient. It's early on, early days, and I'm just going to do the job that I'm handed,” said the 23-year-old, speaking in an exclusive Edinburgh News interview. “On Saturday, that was to come on and play 15 minutes or so. I'll just take those minutes and build on that.” He is prepared to continue showing patience if necessary. “If those are the cards I'm dealt, of course. That's football. I'll just take what I'm handed and deal with it the best I can.” Competition is fierce within the Hearts first-team squad as Vrancken tries to mould a successful starting line-up. Magnusson is battling with Oisin McEntee, Spittal, Tom Renaud and Laurent Mendy for a central midfield berth. Eduardo Ageu will join the fight once he regains fitness. The numbers are necessary as the Edinburgh club try to compete in the Scottish league, two cup competitions and in Europe this season. Complacency certainly isn’t an option for players, particularly with Benfica next up on Thursday evening in the Europa League third qualifying round, first leg. “Oh yeah, definitely. You've got to be on it every day in training,” acknowledged Magnusson. “We've got a huge squad and if you aren't on it, you'll just be left behind, and that's on you. So it's just about being on it during sessions and games, and hopefully the manager picks you.” The manager’s message so far has been brief where Magnusson is concerned. “Nothing pinpointed, but just be ready. Onwards and upwards. Saturday was disappointing. Just seeing how it ended, it's something that shouldn't happen, really. I wanted to come on and just get into the rhythm of the game. That's about it – match the rhythm.” He can detect collective improvement and feels players can take encouragement from the performance at Pittodrie, despite losing the game through 90th and 95th-minute goals. “I think so. We have to do that,” he said. “We've shown that we've stepped up from the last three games. It was just a five-minute spell where we switched off. It just shouldn't happen. We can take a lot from the game and it should be easy to fix those five minutes in the future. The morale is good. I mean, it was two games that we lost in Europe and they were tough to take, but there's only a short time between the games. We've just got to stay focused, take the good things out of the games and move on to the next one.” The next one is, quite simply, gargantuan. Hearts’ mindset is to embrace the challenge of Benfica in the Estadio da Luz - one of the toughest European fixtures in the club’s 152-year history. “Definitely. They're a top team,” said Magnussion. “But if anything, that should excite us to go out, put in a proper shift on the pitch and see what we can do. I think every player in the team has seen Benfica play a game of football. Over the past week it's just been focused on the game against Aberdeen, and now it's focused on Benfica.” The player sampled European competition last year before a £35,000 transfer to Edinburgh. He scored twice for former club Valur Reykjavik against Estonian side Flora Tallinn in the Conference League qualifiers. Attendance at the home leg in Iceland was 981 people. There were 22 more inside the ground for the away match. The Estadio da Luz will be an altogether different level. “I got a small taste of Europe before I came to Hearts,” recalled Magnusson. “I played a few games in the Conference League, but those fans against Sturm Graz were crazy. It was brilliant to see and I'm excited for the next one. It's good for us to have something to be excited for and switch on right away.”