Arvydas Novikovas enjoyed the test presented by Liverpool on Thursday in the Europa League and thinks that it will help Hearts in their drive towards second place in the SPL. Hearts won many plaudits for the performance against a side who, despite being without Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel, Glen Johnson and Andy Carroll, were packed with multi-million pound players. The game turned on an own goal by Andy Webster after the break which gave Brendan Rodgers' side the advantage going into next week's play-off second-leg at Anfield. The Lithuanian internationalist insists that if he and his team-mates replicate their form shown on Thursday on a regular basis they can win the race to be the best of the rest behind Celtic, who are favourites to retain their title. Ahead of Sunday's trip to Aberdeen, Novikovas said: "I think against teams like Liverpool, mentally, your brain is working much better, it is so concentrated on all things, even the small things. When you are playing in the SPL, you think like 'this is not Liverpool, it is easier'. You need to concentrate on all games and if we do we have the chance to finish second. We haven't lost yet, we were unlucky against Inverness (in our last game) so I think we are able to get second." Hearts face a significant challenges next week on Merseyside as they hope to progress in Europe. Novikovas is keen to experience playing at Anfield while hoping for a result akin to a "lottery win". He said: "I have never played in that stadium (Anfield) so it is going to be a great experience again. We can score one goal and sit in defence and wait until penalties or something - the lottery - I don't know! Of course it is going to be hard. It doesn't matter which players were missing, Gerrard or Suarez, the rest of the players are good as well but so were we, we deserved at least 0-0. It was disappointing, we gave it our all but we are happy with our performance."
Source: FOOTYMAD
