FRANCK QUEUDRUE once had fruit thrown at him playing in the UEFA Cup and tomorrow, more than four years after his last away day in the competition, the French full-back has warned Middlesbrough to watch out for the European atmosphere.

During Queudrue's days with RC Lens, he made a number of big occasion appearances and during the warm-up to one match against Celta Vigo an orange ended up on the pitch next to him.

Boro are expecting a hot reception from the Banik Ostrava fans as the Czech Republic champions try to recover from a 3-0 first leg deficit.

Queudrue insists Boro should make progress but he wants to make sure the vociferous Ostravans are kept quiet by an intelligent display from the visitors to the Bazaly Stadium.

"When the atmosphere is very big I have a bigger motivation to play. I want to shut them up," said the 26-year-old, who played in Lens' UEFA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal in 2000.

"I once played at Celta Vigo and they only had a small pitch, like when you play at Highbury, and they threw oranges at us during the warm-up. It was fun I would say. It will be a bit like that on Thursday.

"But we have the players who like this competition and have plenty of experience in Europe. I'm confident that we know what we must do and we will do it.

"If we shut their fans up then we will have killed the game early on - an early goal would be good. The start of the game is important we must make sure we do something to make that happen.

"We are not in this country and it's going to be quite different. We can't make mistakes and we must push forward. It's a different sort of preparation for this type of game."

Since Boro's first leg success, Steve McClaren's side have lost their two Premiership matches to Everton and Chelsea by the odd goal.

But Queudrue does not believe playing in Europe will effect the team in the future, provided they progress, as the whole squad becomes more familiar with the increased number of fixtures.

First Boro must make sure they reach the group stage and that means protecting the comfortable advantage they have from the first game. "I prepare to have a three goal lead than to be three down. We must go over there to win and we must treat it as being 0-0. We have to," said Queudrue.

"Banik were beaten 5-0 by Bayer Leverkusen in a Champions League qualifier but they won the second leg 2-1 at home, so we will have to watch them because that shows it's going to be tough out there.

"It's never finished after one game. We don't really know the atmosphere to expect and we have to be ready for it. We always believe that the players will give 110 per cent and we want to go through. We think we can. Sometimes you do well in the UEFA Cup but your league form suffers. I don't think that will happen to us."

Queudrue is convinced helping Boro qualify for the second stage will further his claim in the French national team.

France coach Raymond Domenech is still seeking a replacement for left-back Bixente Lizarazu, who has retired from international football. And Queudrue said: "It's a big opportunity for the French manager to look at me.''

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