The Austrians cantered into the Champions League third qualifying round, winning 6-0 on aggregate. At no point was the tie in the balance in the second leg at Tynecastle Park, with Sturm simply adding gloss to their 4-0 first-leg victory in Graz last week.

Ahead of the game, Ingolitsch predicted “four to five changes” in Wouter Vrancken’s starting XI. He expected a change at centre-back and the inclusion of Sabri Guendouz. But he also expected Renaud and Ba-Sy to be handed their first competitive starts.

“It surprised me a lot that Renaud was not playing and it surprised me the most that Ba-Sy was not playing because I think everyone knows we want to press high, so they need to take long balls to the last line, like a target man. So for our central defenders and especially Jeyland Mitchell it was quite easy to win those duels,” he explained.

“I think it was like in the first leg; when Ba-Sy is in the game, it’s tougher for us because of his physical ability and his strength. That is difficult to defend and that’s why we were a little bit surprised by this, not having a target man in the last line.

“We all expected that Hearts would have more possession, cross the balls in the box, but like I said, they didn’t have the target man, so it was easier for us to defend.”

While Sturm progress to face either Fenerbahce or Gornik Zabrze in the next round, Hearts drop into the Europa League and will play the winners of the second round qualifying tie between Benfica and St Gallen.

Ingolitsch believes Hearts are on the right track under Vrancken and that a possible Conference League qualification is most likely.

“It’s not easy to say because I don’t know which way they need to go. What I can really say, and it’s really honest, that they have a really good team.

“I think the coach did a really good job so far because he’s only been here four or five weeks. You see how the style of play has changed, how dominant they are.

“They are a really good team, but it needs to make development together. I think they have good cards to go to the Conference League.”