If 16 May was the day the dream ended, 26 August may well turn out to be when the next one started for Hearts. A mere three months on from a final-day defeat that denied Hearts a first Scottish top-flight title in 66 years, they have not only secured a tangible reward for finishing as runners-up, they did so with immense courage and togetherness. Thursday's victory over Rapid Vienna on penalties secured a place in Friday's league phase draw for the Conference League and two games each in October, November and December.
A lot has changed in that three months - a new head coach in Belgian Wouter Vrancken, player departures and plenty arrivals - and a sticky start to the season threatened to prolong a sense of malaise after that 3-1 defeat by champions Celtic. European and domestic losses got the 2026-27 campaign off to a whimper but Vrancken stayed calm and believes his team are now reaping deserved benefits. "They have to learn that they're a good team, that they're good players, that they can show it," he told BBC Scotland.
"In the last away games in Europe, you see that they're a little bit scared to do things, to take risks or to give spaces away. Then we don't play our game. "The development of the team, the progress of the team is amazing.
The team spirit, I saw it from the first session already. They wanted to have feedback. They want to go into it and the kind of football we played.
They get rewarded and I'm so happy for them." Heroic Hearts beat Rapid Vienna on penalties to secure Conference League progress Visit our Hearts page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views While the margin of Hearts' 6-0 aggregate loss to Sturm Graz in the Champions League second qualifying round may have been unexpected, the result was not much of a surprise. Even less surprising was losing to Benfica, typically a Champions League team, in the Europa League qualifiers, though again the margin was heavy at 7-1 on aggregate. Facing Rapid Vienna in the Conference League play-off represented another tough tie, though not considered as tough as either Sturm Graz or Benfica.
Roughly this time last year, Dundee United took Rapid to penalties in their Conference League qualifying tie but lost in the shootout and the improvement in Hearts' domestic form after a losing start at Aberdeen raised hopes that European league phase football was achievable. Hearts more than gave as good as they got in the first leg, but the absence of a lead to take over to Austria made Rapid slight favourites at 2-2, more so after Ercan Kara gave them a 1-0 lead on the night at the Allianz Stadion. A Tomas Magnusson red card and Pierre Landry Kabore equaliser later and it was extra time.
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