Lawrence Shankland’s late goal could prove priceless for Hearts as they look to progress
Birthday boy Lawrence Shankland won’t have been overdoing the celebrations following Hearts’ 2-1 defeat by Rosenborg, but he proved himself to be the gift that keeps on giving.
The 28-year-old’s late goal reignited the Tynecastle club’s hopes of European group-stage football for a second successive season.
Having scored the club’s 8,000th league goal in the win over St Johnstone on Saturday, he was on the scoresheet again in Trondheim as he continued the form that earned him 28 goals last season.
And few would bet against him having a major say in the outcome of this tie next Thursday, live on BBC Scotland, as they look to set up a tie with Hajduk Split or PAOK.
“It was good to get off the mark in the league but when you come into European games you want to score goals,” Shankland told BBC Scotland.
“These are big games for the club, there’s a lot of interest, everybody’s watching to see if you can do it at this level. I expect to score, I like the test and challenge of playing against top opposition.”
Hearts find themselves in a similar situation to last season in European qualifying. On that occasion, trying to get into the Europa League, they came back from Switzerland 2-1 down from the first leg against FC Zurich.
Shankland scored the opener that night from the penalty spot before Hearts were pegged back.
And while they approached that return at Tynecastle with confidence, Jorge Grant’s red card helped put paid to hopes of a comeback before Fabian Rohner destroyed them altogether.
Hearts will seek a different outcome this time round and the captain said a half-time change of mentality would be key to getting back into the tie.
“We gave away two cheap goals,” Shankland said. “But half-time the game plan kind of changed. It was more about getting a goal and making sure we’re still in the tie
“Second half we had a few more entries into the final third and it got better so important we got the goal and we can go back happy and look forward to next week.
“Overall I thought the performance was really good, especially away from home, and we can take a lot of positives from it. Hopefully next week we can create a lot more clear-cut chances.”