Like Hearts, Sturm Graz narrowly missed out on their domestic title
Like Hearts, Sturm Graz narrowly missed out on their domestic title
Hearts will face Austrian club Sturm Graz in the second round of Champions League qualifying.
Meanwhile, Motherwell have been drawn against Havnar Boltfelag of the Faroe Islands, while Hibernian take on the winners of tie between Vllaznia of Albania and Malisheva of Kosovo, in the same stage of the Conference League.
Hearts will be playing in the qualifiers of Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 20 years after finishing runners-up in the Scottish Premiership following a final-day defeat by reigning champions Celtic.
Sturm Graz also finished second in their domestic league behind LASK.
The Austrian club will host the first leg on 21/22 July, with the reverse fixture the following midweek.
By that time Hearts will likely be under new management, with head coach Derek McInnes seemingly poised to switch to Rangers and the Edinburgh club expected to choose a replacement within days.
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Should Hearts defeat Sturm, they will be unseeded and face either Lyon, Bodo/Glimt, Olympiacos or the winner of Fenerbahce v Gornik Zabrze.
If they lose, they will drop into the Europa League third qualifying round and would be unseeded in the same part of the draw as seeded Rangers.
Sturm Graz lost 6-2 on aggregate to Bodo/Glimt in the play-off round last season and beat Rangers 2-1 at home and lost by the same score at Celtic after dropping down to the Europa League and finishing 26th of the 36 teams.
They finished the regular season top by a point, but similar to Hearts, they finished two points behind LASK after the league split into a championship round.
