There’s something quite fitting about Hearts returning to the Champions League for the first time in two decades and immediately walking into a ground where Austrian football does its own thing rather well. Merkur-Arena isn’t a place that gives visiting sides an easy evening, and on Tuesday it hosts a tie that means genuinely different things to each club.
For Sturm Graz, this is business as usual. Continental football has become part of the furniture at this club, with a place in the Europa League or Champions League phase in each of the last five seasons. For Hearts, it’s the opposite. This is uncharted territory, their first Champions League qualifier since 2006/07, and it arrives at the worst possible moment to be short on preparation time.
A New Coach Walks Straight Into Europe
Wouter Vrancken didn’t get much of a honeymoon period. He replaced Derek McInnes after McInnes left for Rangers this summer, and instead of a few gentle weeks to bed in his ideas, his first competitive match in the Hearts dugout is a Champions League qualifier away in Austria. That’s a brutal introduction by any standard.
Pre-season gave Hearts fans some reasons for optimism. Three friendlies, one defeat to Livingston, then back-to-back wins, including a genuinely eye-catching 2-1 win over La Liga side Rayo Vallecano, Amadou Ba-Sy scoring both in the first half. On paper, that looks like a squad building momentum at the right time.
Here’s the thing though. Ba-Sy isn’t even in the Champions League squad. Along with three other summer arrivals, goalkeeper Beau Reus, winger Josh McPake and defender Michael John Kamara, he’s been left out entirely, whether through registration timing or simple squad planning. Add in the departures of Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin, both snapped up by Rangers of all clubs, and Vrancken is essentially building a matchday squad from what’s left rather than what he’d ideally choose.
The injury list doesn’t help either. Craig Halkett, Finlay Pollock and Eduardo Ageu are all out, while Sander Kartum, Yan Dhanda and Elton Kabangu are also unavailable for selection. That’s a lot of absences for a club trying to make a statement in its biggest European night in years.
Away Form Is the Real Concern
If you want the single stat that should worry Hearts fans most, it isn’t the squad turnover. It’s the away record. Since the end of January, Hearts have won just two, drawn two and lost five of their nine matches on the road. Four defeats in their last five European away fixtures on top of that, and they’ve failed to score in four of those five games too.
At first glance, a club chasing Champions League qualification for the first time in a generation should be buoyant. Look a little closer, and you find a team that has genuinely struggled to perform once it leaves Tynecastle behind, right when it needs to do exactly that.
Sturm Graz Are Building Something Under Ingolitsch
On the other side of this tie, Sturm Graz arrive full of confidence, and with good reason. They finished second in the Austrian Bundesliga, just two points off champions LASK, and go into Tuesday having lost only one of their last twenty matches. Their most recent outing was a comfortable 2-0 home win over Rapid Vienna, with eight shots on target, 67% of the ball, and goals from Gizo Mamageishvili and Stefan Hierländer.
New head coach Fabio Ingolitsch has made no secret of wanting more from his side on home turf this season, and Tuesday gives him the chance to start delivering that immediately. There is a wrinkle though. Talented 21-year-old striker Amady Camara, who returned from a loan spell at Nantes and was expected to be a key figure up front, has picked up a thigh strain in training that rules him out of both legs. For a coach demanding improvement at home, losing your most exciting forward option before a ball is even kicked is not the ideal build-up.
Otar Kiteishvili remains the man to watch in midfield after an excellent season, pulling strings and creating chances. There’s also fresh blood to consider, with teenage Polish attacker Filip Rozga and former Austria Vienna striker Maurice Malone both in contention to make their Sturm Graz debuts on Tuesday night, following the departures of Tochi Chukwuani, William Böving and Max Johnston over the summer.
History Offers Hearts Some Hope
If Hearts need a reason to believe, their record against Austrian sides isn’t a bad place to start. They’re unbeaten in two previous meetings, one win and one draw. Sturm Graz’s overall record against Scottish opposition is far more even, three wins and three defeats from six meetings, and this is a club that beat Rangers at home in last season’s Europa League, so there’s clearly no fear of a kilt in the away dugout.
If recent weeks have taught us anything about Sturm Graz, it’s that they draw first blood more often than not, having done so in seven of their last eight matches. For a Hearts side already dealing with squad upheaval and a shaky away record, conceding first in a raucous Merkur-Arena would be a difficult mountain to climb, especially with a new manager still figuring out his best eleven.
This tie is far from a foregone conclusion. Sturm Graz have plenty going for them: momentum, home advantage, European know-how. But Hearts have shown they can compete with sides above their level in pre-season, and a manager parachuted straight into the deep end sometimes gets more out of a squad in week one than anyone expects. It just tends not to happen away from home, and that’s precisely where this first leg is being played.
Prediction
Expected score: Sturm Graz 2-1 Hearts
Confidence level: Medium
Sturm Graz’s home form, extra rest and settled squad should be enough to edge a tight, entertaining opener, though Hearts’ pre-season form suggests they won’t go down without landing a blow of their own.
- Home Win: 55%
- Draw: 22%
- Away Win: 23%
- BTTS: 58%
- Over 2.5 Goals: 54%
