Craig Gordon: Hearts would be competitive in Europa League if they win play off

Craig Gordon insisted he would have no worries about Hearts’ ability to be competitive in the Europa League if they can overcome Viktoria Plzen in the second leg of their play-off tie on Thursday.

Hearts must overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit against their Czech opponents to qualify for the group phase of Europe’s secondary tournament for the first time since its rebrand in 2009.

Gordon, 41, was just starting out on his career when he was part of a Hearts side that played against Feyenoord, Ferencvaros, Basel and Schalke in the UEFA Cup group stage 20 years ago.

“It would be huge for everyone, for every single player, to get to that level and test yourself with some of the best European teams,” said the veteran goalkeeper. “The standard across all the European competitions is so high.

“You just have to look at some of the names in the Europa League this season, there are some huge ties and matches to be played and test yourself against.

“It will be huge. We are desperate to be a part of that and play in as big a competition as we possibly can.”

If they lose to Plzen, Hearts would parachute into the group stage of the Conference League, a competition many believe they would be better suited to, especially given their chastening start to the season.

However, Gordon would prefer to be in the Europa League. Asked if he felt his club were ready to compete at such a level, the goalkeeper said: “Yeah. How do you know? You have to go there and give it your best shot.

“I think we have a big enough squad and the ability to defend well, like we did over in Plzen when we defended well for the majority of the game. We put in a very good away performance and felt a bit unlucky to lose the game.

“But it shows what we are capable of and we carried a threat as well. We could have scored and – on another night – could have won the game. We know if we can get things right even against bigger clubs, we can still win matches.

“It does not matter what competition it is, I think we can be confident of doing well, but we want to be in the biggest competition we possibly can.”