Deja vu for Wouter Vrancken as Hearts fade in defeat to Sturm Graz

Wouter Vrancken rued Hearts’ lack of physical capacity to sustain bright starts in both legs of their 6-0 aggregate defeat by Sturm Graz in the second qualifying round of the Champions League.

The Jambos lost 4-0 in Austria last week despite an encouraging first-half performance.

It was a similar story in the second leg at Tynecastle on Tuesday as they started with energy and purpose before eventually going down 2-0 as two goals midway through the second half from Simon Seidl and Emran Soglo consigned the Edinburgh side to a first home defeat in 15 months.

Hearts will parachute into the Europa League, where they will face the winner of the tie between Benfica and St Gallen in the third qualifying round, with the Swiss side leading 2-1 from the first leg.

Vrancken, appointed by Hearts less than a month before the first leg, felt the Austrians were more prepared for the rigours of such a tie as they set up a showdown with Fenerbahce or Gornik Zabrze.

“I think it’s two times a bit the same,” said the Belgian after his first competitive game at Tynecastle.

“First half-hour, both games, actually good. And then the first 15 minutes or so (of the) second half. But then you see the physical part and you see maybe also the difference in six weeks of preparation (for Graz) and three weeks of preparation.

“You cannot hide it, especially not on that level. And until then it was good. We played first half, for example, we were good and we didn’t reward ourselves. But maybe again, down to sharpness where you have to be fresh in front of the goal to finish it.”

Vrancken is confident his team will soon start to ignite despite struggling for goals in pre-season friendlies and failing to score in both legs against Graz.

“I’m not worried because again, the sharpness is an important thing and you have to have the physical volume, there’s a base of where the intensity comes from,” he said. “And when you have this then it’s also more clear in your head, let’s call it like this, to have this last step to finish it.”

Stephen Kingsley and Alexandros Kyziridis both went off injured.

“I think Kyziridis was a cramp,” said Vrancken. “With Kings, we have to see, because he has also the history (with various injuries), so we have to be careful with this.”

Vrancken will assess new recruit Laurent Mendy over the coming days to establish if the former Forest Green midfielder is ready for involvement in Saturday’s William Hill Premiership opener at Aberdeen.

“Depending on how he adapts and how he pushes himself,” said Vrancken. “He trained a few weeks individually, so it’s not the same rhythm-wise than in a team session. We have to see the physical part of it.”