Former Hibs striker Kenny Miller tips David Gray's side to get result against 'tough' opponents Midtjyland

Former Hibs striker Kenny Miller believes David Gray’s side have what it takes to pull off a memorable European result against ‘tough’ opponents FC Midtjylland later this month.

The 60 times capped Scotland international is no stranger to continental competition, having played Champions League football with both Rangers and Celtic during his career, and was impressed in the turnaround in the Easter Road club’s fortunes last season. The 45-year old, who is now working across the Atlantic as assistant manager at MLS side Atlanta United, put that upturn in form squarely at the feet of one man.

He said: “You only need to look at the start of last season. David Gray is obviously a Hibs legend, who’s been around the club for a long time.

David Gray showed great leadership to turn Hibs around says former Rangers and Wolves striker

“He knows it inside-out. He was caretaker for a couple of spells, but when he took charge last season, things were really bad.

“Despite that, from November he made some changes and they were great. They qualified for Europe, and that was a really strong final two thirds of the season. What that took to achieve was really impressive.

“It requires the belief that you can turn it around before it gets even more dire. They’re a club that are amongst those who should be expecting to fight for third, fourth every season and they managed to qualify for Europe after all, despite losing something like 11 out of 12 at the start.

“The gap between Aberdeen and Hibs at the start of the season was huge. That Hibs turned it around showed such good leadership from David for me. It would have been easy for the club to not think he was the man to turn things around, but they didn’t rush to judgment and didn’t press the panic button.”

Hibs have been drawn against FC Midtjylland in the Europa League second qualifying round with the first leg due to be played on July 24 and the return fixture at Easter Road on July 31. The 2023/24 Danish Super League winners finished as runners-up to FC Copenhagen by just one point in their domestic top flight league last season, clearly demonstrating the size of the task facing the Edinburgh club are up against.

“Midtjylland will be a tough ask,” said Miller. “It’s a real tough draw to get at this stage of the season when you’re still building and preparing.

“It’ll also be a new experience for some of the Hibs players, playing at that level. But they absolutely can pull off a win. They’ve got a really good team, but a good result away from home and you wouldn’t bet against them.”

This will be the fifth time Hibs have entered the Europa League qualifying rounds since the competition was rebranded from the UEFA Cup while they have also twice entered the Europa Conference League qualifying rounds. In that time they have been unable to progress to the group/league phase of either competition.

As for Midtjyland, they reached the knockout phase of last season’s Europa League after coming through the league phase before falling to La Liga side Real Sociedad. Quite often though they have also exited Europe in the qualifying rounds over the past 15 years and don’t have the best record against Scottish teams having been knocked out of competitions by both Celtic and Rangers since 2019.

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