Hearts will take on either Linfield of Northern Ireland or Switzerland's FC Zurich in the Europa League play-off round.
The Jambos finished third in the Premiership last season and reached the Scottish Cup final to secure a place in European group stage football in their first crack at continental competition since season 2016/17. Waiting for them there is Linfield FC OR FC Zurich and it will be a tough but exciting test for manager Robbie Neilson and his team, with a parachute into the Europa Conference League groups there if neither can be turned over.
Before that they have an Edinburgh derby away at Easter Road versus Hibs to contend with but this will spark excitement for later in the month. Ties will be played on August 18 and 25. They will know for sure who they take on when the third qualifying round concludes next week. Neilson knows how exciting and big this draw is for Hearts but wants them to focus on league business too. This can't be a flash in the pan stay, in his opinion.
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He said: "Before that we need to beat Hibs then Dundee United. Then we’ll take care of who we’ve got in Europe. For us, the focus has to be on a short-term basis to make sure we win these games.
“It’ll be exciting when it comes but it’s still three weeks away. We want to qualify for Europe consistently. That will be the hardest bit, trying to balance these European games and maintain an automatic qualification spot.
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“The European games will be great. We want to try to progress and win as many as we can. But we also want to maintain and keep progressing in the league."
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