Hearts star Alex Cochrane has branded Bertrand Traore as 'up there' with the best players he has came up against in his career.
Robbie Neilson's full-back will once again face the former Lyon, Aston Villa and Ajax man as the Jambos make the trip to Turkey to face Istanbul Basaksehir in their final Europa Conference League match. It will bring an end to a European campaign that has delivered two wins over RFS in the section and put welcomed funds in the pockets of the capital club.
This Thursday's hosts ran out 4-0 winners over Hearts at Tynecastle and need a win to guarantee top spot in the group section. Cochrane is looking forward to coming up against the attacker once again as he tests himself against a top level player. He hopes to keep him quiet as he bids to be at the top of his own game and hope he has an off day. Speaking to Edinburgh Evening News, he said: “Traore was very good in the first game, the way he went about his business he was cruising. He’s up there with the best players I’ve played against.
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“He has quality and has played in the English Premier League so hopefully I can keep him quiet on Thursday. I will have to be at the top of my game, then hope he has an off day too.
"What you learn is the step up in standards, playing against people who have been at the top level, and what it takes for them to get there and how they go about their game. You can’t have a day off, really, and it shows you how much you have to put into it to get to that standard.”
Hearts may be already eliminated, but Cochrane says they want to have a go and see what happens. They don't want to travel and come away with a poor result.
He added: “We can’t take this game easy. It’s a big one and we have to be right at it. We don’t want to come away from there taking a really bad result, we want to have a go and see what happens.
“Before the Celtic game we knew we had to put in a good performance. Since then we have had two good results, one in Europe [against RFS] and one in the league [at Ross County]. That’s what we were looking for going to Turkey this week. It’s going to be another tough one over there, we have to go again.
"You saw in the first game the talent they have in their team, a lot of lads with top level and international experience. They have something to play for so it’s going to be a tough game. They will want to get top spot so we will have to be at our best.”
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