It's been all Gent in the opening stages, but it's only resulted in one shot which was straight at Raphael Sallinger.

Hibs have had two forays forward - one led to a throw, the other was offside.

There's a long way to go of course, but if Motherwell win this, would it be one of the greatest wins by a Scottish team in European competition?

Freiburg were in last season's Europa League final, remember.

Image source, SNS

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland at Planet Group Arena

Nae bad view.

While Hearts were busy putting six goals past Inverness Caley Thistle in the Premier Sports Cup last weekend, Rapid went two better.

The Austrian Bundesliga leaders warmed up for Thursday's first leg at Tynecastle with an 8-0 demolition of Grazer AK.

Rapid finished fifth in Austria's top flight last season, but have scored 29 goals already this term, winning all eight of their competitive games.

Tonni Adamsen already has six goals to his name, while Ercan Kara and Moulaye Haidara have five each.

Former Celtic winger Marco Tilio signed for Rapid in August last year and is likely to feature against Hearts.

Hearts have already been stung by Austrian opposition this season, but Vrancken expects Rapid to be better than Sturm Graz in certain areas.

"When you compare them with Sturm Graz, then they want to also press high, they have a strong pressure style," Vrancken said. "Sturm were more direct and played from second balls, fighting for those balls.

"Rapid have the physicality, but they also have the quality to play. I think on the ball they are better, or different, let's say, better in combinations. Always when you play in Europe, especially when you're on the unseeded side, you always draw good teams, so we have to be top level."

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland at Fir Park

What a start from the home side. A goal inside two minutes.

Bedlam at Fir Park.

Rangers head coach Derek McInnes tells BBC Scotland: "I was quite keen to have the same team [as the weekend] but Nico, we're just trying to manage his minutes. He's got a wee bit of an ankle issue so with that in mind we're just trying to look after him.

"We know he may be a flight risk but every player has an opportunity if the price is met. It's nothing to do with that tonight, it's about looking after him. He's been good as gold since he came back from the World Cup and is keen to play his part.

"I thought we had good attacking threats and created a lot more chances [on Sunday]. Hopefully the performance is something similar to Sunday which will give us a chance to win the game."

Image source, SNS

Away we go in Gent and Motherwell.

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland at Fir Park

"Write your name in history, go further than those before you" is the banner that greets the players as they come out to a raucous reception at Fir Park.

At stake, European group stage football. Freiburg line up in front of the main stand all in white, Motherwell in their traditional claret and amber.

It's a riot of noise and colour.

We're good to go.

Hibernian boss David Gray tells BBC Scotland: [Josh Campbell] brings a couple different things. Freshness is one of them. Getting to this point, we need the squad to be firing on all cylinders. Jamie McGrath made his first start on Sunday, it was a quick turnaround for him.

"Josh gives you real legs in midfield, and we're going to need that tonight.

"We can't win the game in the first five minutes, but it's a cup final - in terms of the rewards off the back of that. We can't go in not trying to win. The mindset isn't to do anything other than try to win.

"It's a real difficult opponent but we take confidence from the places we've been."

Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken on whether making six changes to his XI suggests this is his first-choice side now.

"I don't see it that way - but they did well against Benfica and played a few good games now," he told BBC Scotland.

"We need to take the next step now.

"Rapid Vienna are a really good side, on the ball they are better than Sturm Graz. They're good at pressing. We need to be top today to take a result to Vienna.

"The intention [to attack] is there. It depends on the opponent and the quality in our own game, but the intention is there."

Image source, SNS

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "Super proud to be involved with these players who brought all these people here tonight.

"We know it's a good opponent.

"We know it's a big task, but we are focused on what we have to do, which is with a strong mentality, with a smile on our faces, go out and try our absolute best, leave everything on the pitch to play our game.

"Bravery is quite related with the way that we play, and we always need it, and we also need it tonight.

"I think we have a good squad, and I think that the front trio, they have the capability of making problems for many opponents.

"We need to leave this pitch with a good performance, staying true to our principles, and doing that with a strong mentality and a big dose of bravery.

"That's what we are here to focus on, and then the result we will see after the game."

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland at Planet Group Arena

Ghent is some place. Just ask the thousands of Hibs fans who have spent the last 36 hours or so in it.

Auld historic buildings set the backdrop, but they weren’t of interest to the thousands of travelling supporters today, O’Learys sports hall was.

Chairman Ian Gordon lumped an almighty £40k behind the bar to cover a fair whack of the food and drink consumed.

Pool, darts, karaoke and free drink… what more could you want?

(Answer: A Hibs win, probably)

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland at Fir Park

Fir Park will be close to capacity this evening, with 450 German fans in the top deck of the away stand and 8,500 home supporters expected to create a right racket in this part of Lanarkshire.

Motherwell are as strong as they can be, given the number of injuries they're carrying, with Tawanda Maswanhise, Ibrahim Said and Regan Charles-Cook making up a dangerous-looking front three.

Boss Alfred Johansson wants his side to be 'brave' and send the fans home as happy, or happier, than when they arrived.

It's Freiburg's first competitive match of the season. Well will be hoping to catch the Europa League runners-up cold.

After dispatching HJK with one of their finest European performances, Motherwell are gearing up for one of their biggest nights at Fir Park in a generation.

German side Freiburg, who reached the final of last season's Europa League, are formidable opponents.

Aston Villa, who beat Freiburg in that final in Istanbul in May, spent a club-record fee of just over £50m to sign midfielder Johan Manzambi from the Bundesliga club last month.

Everton also paid £17m this summer to make Merlin Rohl's loan move permanent.

Meanwhile, Julian Schuster's side have boosted their own squad with summer arrivals totalling a combined cost of about £30m.

Their competitive season is yet to begin, but they warmed up for this evening's first leg in Lanarkshire by beating Crystal Palace 3-0 on Saturday.

Freiburg have regularly finished in the top half of the Bundesliga since their promotion back to Germany's top flight in 2016-17. They ended seventh last term and fifth the campaign before.

Motherwell know they will need all the backing they can get if they hope to achieve a famous result, with another big home crowd set to roar on their side.

Image source, SNS

Image source, Getty Images

While Hibs progressed to the quarter-finals of the League Cup at the weekend, Gent defeated RAAL La Louviere in the Belgian Pro League.

Rik de Mil's side have won both of their league matches, in addition to defeating Ukrainian side LNZ Cherkasy and Swedes IFK Gothenburg in previous Conference League qualifiers.

Still, the head coach insists the Scots will be their biggest test to date.

"They're a really good team, it's a good challenge for us, it's the best opponent this season we've played against," De Mil said.

Gent, who needed penalties to get past Cherkasy and drew 1-1 here with Gothenburg after winning 1-0 away, are "not at the best", according to De Mil.

"Like everyone else, we're at the beginning of our season, so we need to develop and improve a lot of things with several new players and young players stepping up," he added.

"We are getting the connections and the structure on the pitch and we are improving, but we are not at the best we can be... we will improve."

Let's focus on the challenges that lie in wait for Hibs and Motherwell, who both kick off at 19:30.

Not quite sure what's going on here, but a few of the Rapid Vienna players and staff have been having a reyt good look at the Tynecastle pitch before kick-off.

Image source, SNS

Image source, SNS

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