Claudio Braga reveals Hearts' hurt and answers the mindset question for Celtic Park trip

“I feel we are very ready. I feel like, for the moment, no-one is thinking about that because we can’t. It gets you emotional.” Claudio Braga knows exactly what Hearts need to take on Celtic: Clear heads, calmness, composure, bravery and no little motivation. He doesn’t expect his team to fall short on any of those commodities in Glasgow’s east end. There can be no thoughts of last season’s title decider at the same venue.

Some vivid and painful memories will come flooding back into the minds of a few Hearts players as they enter Celtic Park around 1.30pm on Sunday. Their previous visit there ended in anguish and agony as Celtic scored two goals in the dying minutes to win the Premiership title ahead of Hearts. Then came the ill-advised pitch invasion. Braga played that day, as did Harry Milne, Stephen Kingsley, Stuart Findlay, Landry Kabore and Jordi Altena. Recalling it won’t help this weekend, according to the Portuguese forward.

“Of course, emotions come into football and it’s not good when you get too emotional. We just need to think: ‘Okay, it’s a good opposition in the league right now and nothing to do with last year.’ We just need to go there and try to get the points. In the first few weeks, it hurt a lot because it was a full season fighting for that [league title]. But after that, you look back and feel like: ‘Oh, we did something really good.’

“If you just focus on the positives about that, you don’t even remember that night. There is nothing to do other than focus on what we can control now. It’s a different team, different coach, different style, different players, different tactics different era. Almost everything is different. The starting players, compared to last year, maybe there are three or four guys. It’s a completely different Hearts.

“You can’t just think about what happened in 1999 or last year. It doesn’t really matter. We just focus on what happens this year and that’s it. The motivation is there already. It’s playing first against third. We are going to play in a tough stadium, against tough opposition, we know that. We don’t need to think about what happened before to get motivated.”

Wouter Vrancken and his assistants replaced Derek McInnes and his coaching staff in June. Hearts then signed 12 new players before the summer transfer window closed. Celtic kept faith with Martin O’Neill after that dramatic final-day triumph. However, the Irishman has presided over four losses in the Parkhead club’s last five games. The latest was Thursday’s 4-1 Europa League defeat at Benfica.

“I wouldn’t say Celtic are vulnerable,” remarked Braga. “Of course, like we have, there are vulnerabilities. I’m sure they are analysing that, like we would analyse theirs. Every team has them - even Barcelona. Sometimes they go through a bad moment, like we did against Falkirk, but that happens in football. They are not a weak team or anything like that. It’s such a hard stadium to go to.”

Hearts would perhaps be forgiven were they dreading another trip to face Celtic, but the mindset at Riccarton is simply to go for another title tilt. Celtic are top of the Premiership, five points ahead of Hearts, with Rangers two points behind the leaders in second place. Braga explained why he and his colleagues have no intention of being one-season wonders.

“I think we have that confidence already, to be honest, that we are in this again,” he explained. “Of course, a win at Celtic would be a good statement. But 5-0 against St Mirren, a tough opponent that was up there, is also a statement. Going to Celtic and winning a game against the team that is in first place now is a good statement for sure. But when I talk with the guys in the locker room, the idea that we pass to each other is that we want to repeat what we did last year - but a little bit better.

“If you look at the month of October, it’s a very tough month. When you are a kid, you just dream about that. Playing big games every time and never drop the level, that’s just a dream. It’s a great positive to focus on, instead of thinking: ‘Oh, these are tough opponents.’ Of course, they will be tough but it’s also very good. It means you are among the best and that is good.”