Hibs v Malmo: Swedes ready for highly-charged clash

Rikard Norling: Will pay respects. Picture: SNS

The Swedish league side will visit Easter Road on an emotional night as Hibs fans pay tribute to one of the club’s greatest players, Lawrie Reilly, who died on Monday aged 84.

In such a highly charged atmosphere, Hibs supporters will believe their team can overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.

But Norling is sure his side can handle the atmosphere that awaits them. “It’s part of playing at the top level, you play against teams that have big fan bases,” he said. “Hibernian is such a team and we expect a noisy crowd. We enjoy it, that tells us it’s a very important game. In Swedish football there are many top-class arenas and good atmosphere at stadiums. It’s not only Malmo, other teams have good fans. We are used to it.”

Norling was well aware of the sad news that hit Easter Road this week and vowed Malmo would pay their respects before the game.

“It’s difficult for us to contribute with our awareness level, because we maybe don’t have that understanding,” he said. “Whatever we can do to make it as good for the club and family we will try to do.”

On the pitch, Malmo could face the added threat of fast and direct Hibs winger Alex Harris, who has trained all week after being restricted to 13 minutes in Sweden because of a thigh problem.

Norling said: “Alex Harris made a difference last week, all three subs made a difference. But we are ready for anything they have got.”

As Malmo trained at Easter Road they learned they had been displaced at the top of Allsvenska as Helsingborg leapfrogged them with a 1-0 victory at Halmstad.