NYON, Switzerland — Heart of Midlothian suffered a gut-wrenching title loss on the final day of the Scottish Premiership season, and now the Edinburgh club faces a long road through Champions League qualifying, beginning with a trip to Austria next month.
The draw held Wednesday placed Hearts against Austrian side Sturm Graz in the second qualifying round. The Scottish club must successfully navigate three qualifying rounds before it can earn a spot in the 36-team league phase, which kicks off in September.
Scottish champion Celtic — the club that snatched the title from Hearts with a victory in the season’s final match — enters the competition at a later stage, beginning in the qualifying playoffs round in late August.
In another second qualifying round matchup involving runner-up clubs from mid-ranked leagues, Fenerbahce was drawn to face Gornik Zabrze.
First-leg matches are scheduled for July 21 and 22 — just two days after the World Cup final — with the return legs taking place one week after that.
Hearts’ troubles have only deepened since the title slipped away. Star forward Lawrence Shankland, currently representing Scotland at the World Cup, has departed to join Rangers. On top of that, Hearts is also set to lose coach Derek McInnes to the storied Glasgow club — and that departure is expected just five weeks before Hearts begins its Champions League qualifying campaign.
Should Hearts advance past Sturm Graz, potential third qualifying round opponents could include Bodo/Glimt, Lyon, or Union Saint-Gilloise.
Wednesday’s draw also featured a separate second qualifying round bracket for first-time national champions, and the two clubs involved came away with very different assignments.
Swiss champion Thun drew a difficult opponent in Champions League regular Dinamo Zagreb, with Thun hosting the first leg.
Sweden’s Mjällby will also play the opening leg at home, facing the winner of a first qualifying round tie between Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar and Inter Club d’Escaldes of Andorra. That first-round matchup is set for early July.
Both Thun and Mjällby entered the draw as unseeded clubs, guaranteeing each a seeded opponent. The seeded options available were Dinamo Zagreb, former European champion Red Star Belgrade, and Lincoln — which holds a higher UEFA ranking thanks to its participation in last season’s third-tier Conference League.
Red Star Belgrade, winners of the 1991 European Cup, was drawn to play their away leg first against either Tre Fiori of San Marino or Northern Ireland’s Larne.
