Hearts discover Europa League opponents as star's four-goal blitz seals Jambos date with heavyweight
Hearts are now in the Europa League qualifiers after exiting the Champions League.
Hearts will face Benfica in the third round of Europa League qualifying after they emerged victorious from a two-legged tie against St Gallen.
The Portuguese side entered the return leg of their second round qualifier a goal down but restored parity by half-time. Victory was eventually clinched 6-2 on aggregate, and Wouter Vrancken’s side will travel to Portugal next week for the first leg on August 6th before the rematch at Tynecastle seven days later, subject to any necessary scheduling changes. The winner of Benfica vs Hearts will progress to the play-off round, and clinch guaranteed league phase football in the Conference League as a minimum, while losing this tie will send the defeated club into a two-legged encounter over reaching that frontier.
The Jambos lost 6-0 on aggregate against Sturm Graz in their Champions League second round qualifier and knew the going wasn’t going to get much easier against Swiss or Portuguese opposition. Benfica’s heavyweight status on the continent made them favourites to face Hearts but a 2-1 win for St Gallen in the first leg made Thursday’s return fixture in Lisbon an intriguing one.
What happened in the match between Benfica and St Gallen?
Vangelis Pavlidis struck after 11 minutes to hand Benfica a platform to build from and the Greek international had his brace after half-time. St Gallen were reduced to 10 men when Jozo Stanic was sent off and that all but ended the tie. Pavlidis’ third and fourth goals in an emphatic display certainly did, and now maroon preparations can be made for a Portuguese adventure, following Marco Silva’s side securing a 5-0 second leg success. Clement Lenglet scored the game’s final goal.
Vrancken’s Hearts are now the latest challenge for As Aguias and the Jambos will prepare for that match with a Premiership curtain raiser versus Aberdeen at Pittodrie this Saturday. The Tynecastle head coach said of a 2-0 second leg defeat versus Sturm Graz on Tuesday: “It would have been perfect to do something and I have to say the first half was good.
"A lot of intensity, energy to score goals, we made one miscalculation where we gave one chance away but after that we had control of the game. It was the same as last week, you drop a little bit around the 60th minute and then you see the difference in physical preparation. Sturm Graz were already six weeks into preparation for the season, us only three.
Wouter Vrancken on Hearts 0-2 Sturm Graz
"When you see both games again, what we did with the ball was really good until the moment that you physically cannot bring it anymore and that made it difficult. I hope everybody starts scoring. It doesn't matter who as long as the goals come.
"It comes together with physical preparation too, then you make the better decisions and in the final moments you're there to finish it. I cannot blame the players in intentions and how they did it at all. It's not about quality. When you play against Sturm Graz who are experienced in Europe and you play like that in the first half in both games then it's not about lacking quality, it's more about we have to make some steps physically.”