Wednesday July 29th 2026
Hearts and Sturm Graz take to the pitch ahead of kick-off.
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Adam Bowen
It was a tough test for Hearts tonight following their 4-0 defeat to Sturm Graz in the first leg.
It was a very loud crowd at the start of the game but as the minutes ticked by the noise quietened.
Borchgrevink wasn’t on the team sheet tonight with McCart and Kabore also dropping to the bench.
Kingsley, Altena and Guendouz all came into the starting 11 with Kinglsey grabbing the armband.
Schwolow, in his final game for the club, made many crucial saves. The first coming within the first 20 minutes when poor communication at the back led to Sturm Graz’s, Stankovic, running in behind on goal around 6 yards out but Schwolow made himself big.
It was the 26th minute mark when the ball was played well by Strum Graz around the Hearts’ penalty area before it went down the left flank and was played across goal, with Schwolow in a bad position Jatta flicked the ball in like he was playing at the local park. However, VAR intervened and the referee went to the monitor ruling the goal out due to a foul on Milne.
It took Sturm Graz until the 64th minute to find the net again after a long ball was flicked on by the captain, Gorenc Stankovic, into the path of Seidl, who touched the ball upwards and then almost half volleying it beautifully off the post and in from a difficult angle.
Minutes later Sturm Graz played the ball efficiently at speed before Soglo ended up through on goal, the initial effort was saved however it rebounded straight off the French fullback and into the back of the net.
Some Hearts fans began to leave not long after, and they didn’t miss much as the game just petered out over the final 20 minutes.
The game finished 0-2 on the night with Sturm Graz advancing to the next round of the Champions League qualifiers playing either Fenerbahçe or Gornik Zabrze, with Hearts dropping down to the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League where they will face either Benfica or St Gallen. The Swiss side go into the second leg with a 1 goal lead following their 2-1 home victory.
The newly appointed Hearts manager, Wouter Vrancken, said that ‘in the first half we were good’ and that the Sturm Graz manager told him that the ‘difference was made after an hour or so.’ He further said how the ‘structure was no problem, the guys believed in it’ and that it isn’t about preparation it is about being able to do it for ‘longer than 60 minutes.’
Sturm Graz boss Fabio Ingolitsch said that he was ‘surprised a lot’ at the Hearts changes for this second game, especially Amadou and Renaud. He said the biggest surprise was Amadou as it meant Hearts didn’t have a target man, mentioning how his team like to press high so it would have made sense for Hearts to start their new signing. He explained how these changes made it ‘quite easy’ for his defenders to win their duels. He finished by saying that Hearts ‘are a really, really good team’ describing them as ‘dominant’ and that he feels they ‘have good cards to go to the Conference League.’
Kingsley and Kyziridis both came off the pitch injured tonight, however the Hearts boss said that Kyziridis’ was cramp but they’ll ‘have to see’ with the extent of Kingsley’s, mentioning how he has history with that injury.
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