Weak Hearts ripped apart by Sturm Graz as Champions League dream goes up in smoke

Hearts’ Champions League hopes are hanging by a thread after they suffered a highly damaging 4-0 defeat by Sturm Graz in Austria.

In Wouter Vrancken’s first match as head coach since taking over from Derek McInnes, Hearts were soundly beaten in the first leg of their second qualifying round tie at the Merkur Arena in Graz.

The second leg is at Tynecastle next Tuesday and Hearts will need to pull off one of the greatest comebacks in their history if they are to remain in the hunt for Champions League football.

Hearts were soundly beaten by Sturm Graz. | Nikola Krstic/Shutterstock

It was a night for regrets for Vrancken and his Hearts players, who more than matched Sturm Graz in the first half and paid the price for not defending a long throw-in at the start of the match and then missing some gilt-edged opportunities.

Jon Stankovic out-jumped Jamie McCart to power Sturm Graz into a fourth-minute lead, but Hearts created plenty of chances of their own with some neat attacking play. Landry Kabore and Alexandros Kyziridis both missed sitters as the hosts showed their defensive deficiencies.

Unfortunately for Hearts, they also had issues of their own at the back. McCart struggled throughout and he and his central defensive partner Malachi Fagan-Walcott, as well as full-backs Christian Borchgrevink and Harry Milne, fell apart at the start of the second half, with Hearts 4-0 down by the hour mark.

Jeyland Mitchell, Luca Weinhandl and Jurgen Hell all found the net and while a shell-shocked Hearts tried to engineer a recovery, they were unable to breach the Sturm Graz rearguard.

The Austrians are now landslide favourites to progress to face either Fenerbahce or Gornik Zabrze and if that happens, Hearts would drop into the Europa League third qualifying round, where they would play Benfica or St Gallen.