Benfica rout leaves Hearts facing drop to Conference League

Hearts endured a predictably bruising evening in Lisbon as their hopes of progressing to the Europa League were all but ended by a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Benfica.

After a largely demoralising summer since being pipped to the William Hill Premiership title by Celtic in May, 1,300 embattled Jambos travelled to the Portuguese capital for one of their most formidable-looking fixtures in living memory braced for a fourth consecutive defeat under new boss Wouter Vrancken.

And that was exactly what transpired as Marco Silva’s Benfica opened the scoring in the third minute, led by three at the break and then added another three in the second half to remove all sense of jeopardy from next Thursday’s second leg at Tynecastle.

While the Portuguese giants are on course to face the losers of the Champions League tie between Aarhus and Sabah Baku in the Europa League play-off round, Hearts are staring at a likely Conference League play-off against Rapid Vienna, who lead Paide 4-1 after the first leg in Estonia.

Vrancken arrived from Belgian club Sint-Truiden in June with a reputation for playing front-foot football and he stuck to his principles by naming an ultra-attacking line-up with no obvious intention of trying to keep things tight.

Benfica swiftly set about picking holes in Hearts’ set-up, signalling their intent in the second minute when Gianluca Prestianni’s shot from the edge of the box was pushed away by Beau Reus.

The deadlock was broken a minute later when Rafa Silva slotted home after Leandro Barreiro burst on to Alexander Bah’s pass and cut the ball back from the right.

Hearts almost mustered a swift response but Claudio Braga headed wide from Calvin Miller’s cross.

Benfica continued to pepper the visitors’ goal though as Reus made three impressive saves – two from Barreiro and one from Prestianni – before the visitors doubled their lead in the 23rd minute.

Tomas Araujo did the damage, heading home Georgiy Sudakov’s corner as Hearts’ woes defending set-pieces this season continued.

The visitors should have pulled one back in the 34th minute when Laurent Mendy headed Blair Spittal’s free-kick against the crossbar and Landry Kabore was unable to knock the rebound into an empty net.

Mendy effectively gifted Benfica their third when he conceded a penalty in the 41st minute by needlessly tugging Prestianni’s shirt as he ran into the box. Vangelis Pavlidis sent his spot-kick straight down the middle and into the net.

Vrancken made some changes – both in personnel and shape – for the start of the second half but Prestianni curled in Benfica’s fourth from just inside the box after a loose pass from substitute Tom Renaud in the 58th minute.

Renaud redeemed himself in the 72nd minute by driving home a low angled shot to finish off a lovely build-up and give the travelling support some cause for cheer.

Following a brief period of positivity for the Edinburgh side, Benfica struck again in the 87th minute when sub Jhon Duran blasted home from Andreas Schjelderup’s cutback. And Schjelderup notched their sixth with a stoppage-penalty after Oisin McEntee handled.