Lawrence Shankland out to crack Fiorentina Da Vinci Code as Hearts striker follows Lazio lead

The Da Vinci Code carries the name of Florence's favourite son but Lawrence Shankland insists he's already deciphered how to crack Fiorentina's defence.

The Hearts striker believes all roads lead to Lazio in the search of the Holy Grail as the Jambos attempt to land a historic Europa Conference League win and revive their Group A ambitions. La Viola were hammered 4-0 by their Italian rivals on Monday and languish in 13th spot on the Serie A table, it was a result which had the home fans sending their team off at full-time to a crescendo of boos.

Shankland is well aware that Fiorentina's 3-0 win at Tynecastle last Thursday underlined their quality but when it comes to finding reasons to be confident the secrets to the Italian side's defence can be unravelled. He said: "Fiorentina took a heavy defeat on Monday so they can lose goals. If you attack them in the right ways you can get at them.

"We have done analysis and worked on our game plan. It was difficult last week but we didn't help ourselves losing an early goal. "They started playing with confidence, knocked it around and frustrated us. We couldn't get close to get the ball off them. Hopefully Thursday is a bit different."

Shankland was replaced early into the second-half last midweek after a frustrating night of trying without success in unlocking Fiorentina's offside trap. The supremacy of the Italians was shown in their comprehensive domination of the ball and they could and should have converted more than just their three goals given the amount of chances they created.

But the Hearts hitman is convinced it will have no bearing on events at the Stadio Artemio Franchi and refuted the suggestion they afforded La Viola to high a degree of respect. "I don't think