Hibernian midfielder Joe Newell will take any advantage he can get going into Sunday's Scottish Cup meeting with Rangers.
The Easter Road side have been amidst a mini-resurgence in recent weeks and come up against a Rangers squad that played a high-energy Europa League knockout game over in Portugal just days ago.
Newell is hoping Hibs can use that to their benefit when the two teams clash, and detailed his own experiences of juggling European and domestic action.
“I watched it (the Benfica game) and it was a tough game for them so hopefully they’re knackered!” the Englishman laughed.
“We obviously played in Europe earlier on in the season and it’s tough to go Thursday night, Sunday, Thursday night again.
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“We struggled with it. It can be hard physically and mentally. But what I would say is their squad is obviously a lot stronger in depth than what we had.
“They’re a club and a group of players that are used to doing well in Europe the last few years. It’s tough but I’m sure they’ll be well prepared and ready mentally the same as we will be, so we won’t be going into too much detail on that in terms of our thinking before the game.”
Newell is well-aware Hibernian will require more than just belief to beat Rangers, but reckons there's enough evidence that they can hold their own against the Scottish Premiership leaders on home soil.
“It’s all about belief,” said Newell. “But you can’t just say that for example, Tamworth, my hometown club, are going to beat Barcelona just because they have belief.
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“You have to have belief from having seen things happen and something working before. We’ve had a good performance the last time we played Celtic, and in my years I’ve been up here we’ve had good performances and results against Rangers so the belief is there through evidence.
“With the squad we have, the talent we have, and the form we’re in, we should believe.”
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