Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken has blamed his side’s Champions League humbling at the hands of Sturm Graz on a shortage of preparation — but insists that can’t be an excuse for their Premiership opener away at Aberdeen.

The Tynecastle outfit lost 2-0 at home to the Austrians last night to go down 6-0 on aggregate in their second round qualifying clash and now face a Europa League qualifier next week at Portuguese giants Benfica or Swiss outfit St Gallen.

Before that, though, they face a trip to Pittodrie and Vrancken has made it clear what will be required there — even though he claims his players still won’t be at their physical peak.

‘We have to go step by step, but we cannot wait until we are physically top, top to make results,’ said the Belgian. ‘Within our physical preparation and the steps we have to make, we have to take the results and go into the games and hopefully finish it.

‘The night had to be perfect (against Sturm Graz) to do something and the first half was good, especially the first half-an-hour. There was a lot of intensity and energy to score goals. We made one miscalculation and gave one chance away, but we had control of the game.

‘You have to reward yourself, though. Then, you drop a little bit, the same as last week, around the 60th minute and then you see the difference in physical preparation. Sturm Graz had six weeks of preparation while we had three.

‘You have to be ready for every moment at this level. When you see both games, we were really good until the moment you physically can’t bring it any more the way you want to do it.

‘Goals go together with the physical preparation. When you are physically top, top, you are clear in the head and make the better decisions in those final moments. 

'I can’t blame the players at all. It’s not about quality we are lacking. We have to make steps after a short preparation.’

Winger Alexandros Kyziridis went off late on with what looked like a fitness issue while Stephen Kingsley was removed early in the second half with Vrancken fearing the worst.

‘It is not looking good (for Kingsley) and it is a pity for us because he was really good,’ he said.