Rapid Vienna stars praise Hearts for European victory

The Tynecastle side qualified for the league phase of the Europa Conference League after a penalty shootout success, despite being reduced to ten men in Austria when Tomas Magnusson was shown a second yellow card.

And Rapid scorer Kara praised Hearts for getting through against the odds. The Austrian international said: "We lost momentum in the second half and gave away too many fouls.

"That wasn't good because it was clear Hearts were very good at set-pieces. We have to pick ourselves up now and prepare for the weekend match.

"Credit to Hearts, but this was a major disappointment."

And Rapid skipper and fellow Austrian international Matthias Seidl reckoned their shock defeat was a real hammer blow to them. He said, "We have to be honest and admit our performance wasn't good enough.

"We didn't do enough to get through, and we didn't apply as much pressure and create as many chances as we should have against Hearts.