Sturm Graz 4 – 0 Hearts

New Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken endured a nightmare debut as his side’s Champions League hopes all but vanished with a 4-0 defeat against Sturm Graz.

Hearts lost set-piece goals in the early stages of each half and conceded twice more during a torrid spell before the hour mark.

The visitors missed two excellent chances and played some good football in the first half but they are left with a mountain to climb ahead of next Tuesday’s second qualifying round second leg at Tynecastle.

Hearts look almost certain to drop into the Europa League, where they would face Benfica or Swiss side St Gallen, with the winners of this tie facing Fenerbahce or Gornik Zabrze.

Vrancken passed up the chance of guaranteed Europa League football with Sint-Truiden to replace Derek McInnes at Tynecastle with key players Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin following the manager to Rangers.

The Belgian named two debutants in his starting line-up, wide player Calvin Miller and centre-back Malachi Fagan-Walcott, while Jamie McCart was preferred to Stuart Findlay, one of Hearts’ key players last season, in central defence.

Hearts also changed set-piece coaches in the summer with Liam Ross coming in for Ross Grant following his move to Celtic.

Set-plays were one of the team’s strengths in their unlikely title challenge but they looked vulnerable from dead balls throughout.

Despite a promising start which saw Harry Milne force a save, Hearts conceded inside four minutes from a long throw. Jon Gorenc Stankovic ran away from his marker and outjumped McCart to head home.

Graz attacker Seedy Jatta headed off the post following a corner and Alexander Schwolow, who was selected despite sealing an imminent move to Mainz, saved an effort with his feet.

Hearts improved. Claudio Braga forced a save with a decent effort before Landry Kabore shot straight at the goalkeeper from 10 yards after a good run from Oisin McEntee. Alexandros Kyziridis soon missed an even better chance when he flicked the ball wide after good work from Braga.

The referee handed the Austrians a penalty for an extremely harsh handball decision against Milne before reversing the award following a look at his VAR monitor.

Graz dominated the opening stages of the second half and Jeyland Mitchell nodded home from close range after a 50th-minute corner. Schwolow seemed more concerned with pushing away an attacker than dealing with the inswinger, Kabore misjudged the flight and Mitchell shook off the attention of Braga.

Luca Weinhandl fired the third in off Milne three minutes later after the Hearts defence missed several chances to make a decisive challenge.

Schwolow stood motionless as Emran Soglo curled the ball off the inside of the far post and Jurgen Heil fired a shot through the goalkeeper at his near post after getting ample time and space to convert a return pass in the 59th minute.

Graz seemed to settle for four and Hearts could not get a lifeline.

McEntee made a mess of a free header, McCart failed to trouble the goalkeeper from a string of headed chances and Tom Renaud twice fired over from 22 yards.