Hibs<\/a> to make the group stages for the first time.<\/p>\nThey couldn\u2019t have been given a tougher talk against the Danes who have Champions League experience and had previously taken out Ange Postecoglou\u2019s Celtic.<\/p>\n
Both sides know that whoever wins next week will go into the third qualifying round against the Norwegians FK Fredrikstad.<\/p>\n
The losers will drop into the Conference but Gray and his troops will be looking to finish the job they started and to continue their Europa League adventure.<\/p>\n
Here’s five talking points from Denmark.<\/p>\n
No Gray areas for David<\/p>\n
It was pretty much in the same way as he got success last season. He stuck by his tried and trusted 3-5-2 formation. He also gave starting debuts to Jamie McGrath and Josh Mulligan.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376114277.jpg\")
David Gray <\/p>\n
It would have been easy to play with one striker and sit in but that clearly didn\u2019t come into his thinking. Gray also opened up on the front foot and his side made the early running from the start, with Martin Boyle causing problems in behind.<\/p>\n
McGrath is an instant hero<\/p>\n
The summer signing joked before the game that he had some making up to do after he was part of the Aberdeen team that lifted the Scottish Cup and denied Hibs guaranteed group stage football.<\/p>\n
The midfielder made the perfect start as he opened his Hibernian account just seven minutes in. He curled in a free kick from the left and beat Joan Lossi at his near post. The keeper gave him a helping hand and then tried to drag it back over the line but the officials gave the goal and Hibs an early lead.<\/p>\n
Big chances and boos<\/p>\n
Midtjylland as expected tried to push Hibs back and launched every long throw into their box.<\/p>\n
The visitors stood up to everything and had the best first half chances. Kieron Bowie had a good chance but was shut down by Mads Bech and then fired over in a hectic but well-drilled first half from Hibs. So much so that Midtjylland didn\u2019t have a first half chance on target.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376115202.jpg\")
Martin Boyle after his goal is ruled out<\/p>\n
Martin Boyle had the ball in the Midtjylland net again just before half-time. Bowie showed good strength to hold off his marker and play his fellow striker through but he had strayed offside. A VAR check backed the officials. He was denied his 100h his\u2019 goal.Hibs\u2019 performance was summed up as the home team trooped off to half-time to a chorus of boos.<\/p>\n
Much more from Midtjylland.<\/p>\n
It was no surprise to see Midtjylland come back out early and they were fired up.<\/p>\n
The home side were more direct and they started to test Jordan Smith. The backline stood up well but their stiff resistance was finally broken by a great free kick from Aral Simsir that may well have taken a deflection off the wall. Hibs then saw it out.<\/p>\n
The players, manager and coaching staff took a well-deserved bow in front of the celebrating end at full-time.<\/p>\n
Time to finish the job<\/p>\n
If they perform like they did in this game and with a big, vocal home support behind them there is no reason why not. They will have taken massive confidence from this game that they can compete with the experienced Danes. More than 1,000 Hibs fans played their part last night and a full house at Easter Road could get them over the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Gray’s side have everything to play for at Easter Road after an impressive 1-1 draw in Denmark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[46203,1811,94,21843,107816,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-289027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-david-gray","9":"tag-europa-league","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-hibernian-fc","12":"tag-jamie-mcgrath","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114910581591097024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376112972.jpg\")
Jamie McGrath celebrates with Chris Cadden<\/p>\n