Soccer
‘A really bad feeling’ – Wouter Vrancken rues Hearts hammering against Benfica
Wouter Vrancken lamented Hearts’ lack of composure as a “difficult” night in Lisbon ended with a demoralising 6-1 defeat at the hands of Benfica.
The Jambos are facing the prospect of dropping into the Conference League play-off round after the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie panned out in predictably one-sided fashion.
Benfica took the lead in the third minute through Rafa Silva before a Tomas Araujo header and a Vangelis Pavlidis penalty had them three up at the break.
Gianluca Prestianni capitalised on a Tom Renaud mistake to make it four just before the hour and after Renaud pulled one back for Hearts, two late goals from Jhon Duran and Andreas Schjelderup – another penalty – all but killed the tie.
“It was difficult,” said head coach Vrancken in a club interview afterwards. “We knew before the game already that it was a difficult game.
“We played against a team that only lost last year to Real Madrid at home. They didn’t lose one game in the league last year, so it was a difficult game for sure.
“The only thing I think is that when you see the first half, the intentions to play football, and is it nervousness or lack of experience, we started playing long balls.
“When you play Benfica, like we said already before the game, when you start playing long balls, they know what to do with this and they come back as fast as you play them.”
Vrancken was disappointed that Benfica scored the two late goals after Hearts had rallied and threatened to make the final scoreline more respectable.
“We had some moments in the first half, but the second half was much better,” he said. “I think we had 20 or 25 minutes where we really played good football.
“Then you see that you can also keep the ball and play the ball, and also the goal was really nice to see.
“After the way the first half went and then the feeling of the second half when you get to 4-1, then you can still have a little bit of a positive feeling of your performance.
“But at the moment we scored (to make it) 4-1, in the team you felt like, ‘OK, we can do more, a little bit more risk’, but it puts you more open.
“Then, of course, against such a team, they just played through it, and then you are really vulnerable. There’s maybe a lack of experience but those two goals at the end, they give you a really bad feeling actually.”
