Frick 'angry and disappointed' as Luzern suffer European exit at hands of 'astonishingly strong and sometimes cheeky' Hibs

Marco Burch’s reaction to his 80th-minute substitution spoke volumes. The 22-year-old had been unfortunate to divert Élie Youan’s tenth-minute effort over Pascal Loretz but his role in Hibs’ vital second goal was borderline criminal.

As he vied with Youan for an aerial ball that the Easter Road attacker won, Burch stopped in anticipation of a whistle that never came, of a free kick that wasn’t awarded. As the defender searched in vain for some stoppage that would get him out of jail, Youan only had one thing on his mind as he drove into the box, looked up, and picked out the arriving Martin Boyle who swept home from close range to level the score on the night and restore Hibs’ two-goal aggregate cushion. Hooked by boss Mario Frick moments later the centre-back pummelled a seat on the substitutes’ bench, spending the remainder of the game slumped in the same seat.

Reviewing the match afterwards, Frick spoke of Luzern conceding self-inflicted goals. He didn’t shine a spotlight on Burch’s indiscretion but then the former Liechtenstein international striker really didn’t have to.

FC Luzern boss Mario Frick felt four of the five goals his side conceded across the tie were self-inflicted. Picture: Paul Devlin / SNS Group

Speaking after the match, he said: “I'm disappointed and angry. If you add the two games together, we conceded a total of five goals against Hibs and caused four of them ourselves, even though we're the better team on paper. We are on our way to becoming a top team, but we were clearly too naive here. Hibs played a very combative game, clear and experienced. You learn the most from defeats.”

The view from the Swiss media was similar; questioning the quality of the defence but claiming Luzern were the better team, and stating that Hibs had played ‘surprisingly well’ given their league form. The visitors were also described as ‘astonishingly strong and sometimes cheeky when in possession’. Youan was chastised for his provocative behaviour as he celebrated his first-half strike in front of the Luzern ultras while Nicky Beloko was rated fortunate not to be punished for fouling Boyle as he bore down on goal in the first half.

Much had been made of Luzern’s quality and even the bookies agreed that the hosts were likely to prevail, at least on the night, despite defeat in Edinburgh. In the end though, the 3-1 first-leg defeat proved too much to overcome