New Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken faced a challenging start to his tenure, witnessing his team’s Champions League aspirations nearly extinguished with a 4-0 defeat against Sturm Graz.

The match saw Hearts concede set-piece goals early in both halves, suffering further setbacks before the hour mark. Despite displaying promising football and missing two golden chances in the first half, the visitors now face a daunting task ahead of the second leg at Tynecastle next Tuesday.

Key points from the match:

• Hearts are likely to drop into the Europa League, where they could meet Benfica or Swiss side St Gallen.
• Vrancken declined a guaranteed Europa League spot with Sint-Truiden to take over from Derek McInnes at Tynecastle.
• The Belgian coach included two debutants in his starting lineup: Calvin Miller and Malachi Fagan-Walcott.
• The team’s set-piece vulnerability was evident, as they had previously relied on this strength during their title challenge.

The match began with Jon Gorenc Stankovic scoring for Graz within four minutes from a long throw. Hearts improved momentarily, with Claudio Braga forcing a save, but they could not capitalize on their opportunities. A penalty was awarded but later reversed after VAR review.

In the second half, Jeyland Mitchell scored from a corner, followed by Luca Weinhandl and Emran Soglo increasing the deficit. The final blow came from Jurgen Heil, who found the net after a lapse in the Hearts defense. Despite a few attempts to respond, including missed headers and shots from Tom Renaud, Hearts could not find a way back into the match.