Hearts pick up injuries as Wouter Vrancken bemoans lack of guts and 'stupid' concessions in Lisbon

Two Hearts players suffer knocks as Benfica hit them for six

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Wouter Vrancken lamented Hearts' lack of bravery and guts at certain moments following the 6-1 defeat by Benfica in Lisbon.

The Edinburgh club were 4-1 down entering the closing minutes before two late goals killed their Europa League third qualifying round tie.

Hearts will play Benfica at Tynecastle Park in the return leg next week but, realistically, they are looking at a drop into the Conference League play-off. They are likely to meet Rapid Vienna in that round as the Austrians hold a 4-1 lead after their first-leg match against Paide in Estonia.

Vrancken was disappointed at some of Hearts' defending and felt the two penalties they conceded at the Estadio da Luz were "stupid".

Goals from Rafa Silva, Tomas Araujo, a Vangelis Pavlidis penalty, and Gianluca Prestianni had put Benfica 4-0 ahead before Tom Renaud's first Hearts goal reduced the deficit. Substitute Jhon Duran made it 5-1 before a penalty by fellow replacement Andreas Schjelderup completed the scoring.

Vrancken was frustrated at how Benfica scored twice in the final few minutes.

"Especially at the end, yeah. When you play Benfica and you just kick balls forward, they are going to come back just as quickly as you kick them," said the Belgian head coach. “You saw it in the first half, maybe because of lack of experience or nervousness, because we lost an early goal, but we were just kicking balls forward. Then you never get in the game.

“A few moments in the first half, you find spaces and you give yourself a little bit of air. But it was disappointing to see that we didn’t show more guts in these moments.

“The second half was really good. We tried to play football, to find spaces, and to stick to the game plan, especially in and out of possession. We found those spaces and scored a great goal. At that moment, we could have finished the game 4–1 and carried the positive feeling from the second half.

“But after making it 4–1, the team felt we could go for 4–2 and maybe do more, and we took a bit more risk on the pitch. That opened the game up, and as we said before, you have to manage these moments. They have exceptional quality, and then they kill you."

Vrancken said he learned more about his Hearts team from the match.

"For everybody individually it is a learning process, especially against a side like this. Some of our players were in the fifth tier last year, some in the third tier in France last year, and now they have to play at Benfica. It is not easy for those guys, and we knew it would not be easy.

"When you give away two stupid penalties to begin with, and they outplay you in open play, that is their quality. But if you manage these moments better, you do not give it away so easily. You keep the good feeling of the second half, which was about 25 minutes; if we had finished at the same score, it would have been a nicer feeling."

Hearts half-time substitutions were enforced

Vangelis Pavlidis put Benfica 3-0 ahead from the spot after Laurent Mendy tugged Benfica's Leandro Barreira, and Schjelderup also scored a penalty when Oisin McEntee was penalised for handling. Vrancken also revealed that Mendy and captain Harry Milne were substituted at half-time because of injury concerns.

"It was because they felt something. We will see in the next days. I do not think it is too serious, but we will see," added Vrancken.

"We could always hope to take a result here, but as we said before the game, the only team that beat them in a long period was Real Madrid, and they did not lose a single league game last year.

“We can try to be hopeful about getting a result here, but when you are realistic, our guys play at a lower level, so it is not that realistic. The main thing I do not want to see is those moments where we do not stick together. Just take the result: it is 4–1 at this moment, we did not do well in the first half in my opinion, so take this result and keep the feeling from the second half with you.

“When you do not, and you give away two goals, including a stupid penalty, then the result slips away."

Asked about Claudio Braga's Hearts future amid interest from Lyon, Trabzonspor and Ipswich Town, Vrancken was coy.

"As a coach, I always want to keep the best players for the team. I definitely want to keep him," he replied. "But in a transfer window, you never know. I have been a coach long enough to know that everything can happen at any moment in the transfer window. The main thing is that the club has to be ready if something happens. Let us hope that he can stay."