Paulo Sergio does not see Scottish football as being in the doldrums despite seeing all three Scottish sides failing to progress in the Europa league. Hearts salvaged some pride in securing a 0-0 draw at White Heart Lane against Spurs after the damage done at Tynecastle of losing 5-0 last week. Rangers and Celtic both failed to make the get past NK Maribor and FC Sion respectively last night. Hearts put on a good display in their 0-0 draw last night (especially the fans), but there was no real chance of scoring the goals required to progress and will now have to concentrate on the league. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said he was astonished at how much Scottish football has declined, but Sergio, who moved to the country from his Portuguese homeland this summer, insists the situation is not as bad as many make out.
Sergio said: "Scottish football is not in trouble. There are great footballers in Scotland. There are great teams in Scotland too, stronger than ours. Sometimes in football the strong ones don't win. I don't believe that Maribor and Sion have stronger squads than Celtic or Rangers but that's just football. Last week the national team beat Denmark. They did it very well, with class."
Sergio made seven changes from last week's beaten side, but the move paid off, with his youngsters looking the more likely of the two sides to score. Gordon Smith rattled the bar in the 12th minute , who stayed in the tie thanks partly to Jamie MacDonald's penalty save from debutant Harry Kane, and Rudi Skacel was a constant threat. Sergio was disappointed not to win the second leg, but was glad to see his team put in a much better performance than last Thursday when Hearts were 3-0 down by half-time. Sergio said: "There were a lot of differences (between the two games). In the first leg we gave them too much space and respected them too much. Then we were just smelling the ball, we did not touch it for the first 45 minutes. Now things are changing and I am happy with that."