Wouter Vrancken’s nightmare start as Hearts manager has continued after enduring a predictably bruising 6-1 defeat at the hands of Benfica to all but dash their hopes of progressing to the Europa League.
Benfica took the lead in the third minute through Rafa Silva before a Tomas Araujo header and a Vangelis Pavlidis penalty had them three up at the break.
Gianluca Prestianni capitalised on a Tom Renaud mistake to make it four just before the hour and after Renaud pulled one back for Hearts, two late goals from Jhon Duran and Andreas Schjelderup – another penalty – all but killed the tie.
The Jambos are facing the prospect of dropping into the Conference League play-off round as a result of the first-leg defeat in their third-round qualifying tie, and Vrancken could only lament his side’s lack of composure.
“It was difficult,” said head coach Vrancken in a club interview afterwards. “We knew before the game already that it was a difficult game.
“We played against a team that only lost last year to Real Madrid at home. They didn’t lose one game in the league last year, so it was a difficult game for sure.
“The only thing I think is that when you see the first half, the intentions to play football, and is it nervousness or lack of experience, we started playing long balls.
“When you play Benfica, like we said already before the game, when you start playing long balls, they know what to do with this and they come back as fast as you play them.”
While the Portuguese giants are on course to face the losers of the Champions League tie between Aarhus and Sabah Baku in the Europa League play-off round, Hearts are staring at a likely Conference League play-off against Rapid Vienna, who lead Paide 4-1 after the first leg in Estonia.
Vrancken was disappointed that Benfica scored the two late goals after Hearts had rallied and threatened to make the final scoreline more respectable.
“We had some moments in the first half, but the second half was much better,” he said. “I think we had 20 or 25 minutes where we really played good football.
“Then you see that you can also keep the ball and play the ball, and also the goal was really nice to see.
“After the way the first half went and then the feeling of the second half when you get to 4-1, then you can still have a little bit of a positive feeling of your performance.
“But at the moment we scored (to make it) 4-1, in the team you felt like, ‘OK, we can do more, a little bit more risk’, but it puts you more open.
“Then, of course, against such a team, they just played through it, and then you are really vulnerable. There’s maybe a lack of experience but those two goals at the end, they give you a really bad feeling actually.”
Hearts were dumped out of Champions League qualifying at the hands of Sturm Graz in July before suffering an opening day defeat to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.
With pressure already mounting on Derek McInnes’ successor, Vrancken is desperate for a victory when Hearts return to Tynecastle to face Dundee United on Sunday.