Conference League preview – Cercle Brugge v Heart of Midlothian

Despite Heart of Midlothian’s lowly position in the Scottish Premiership and a run of three successive defeats, most fans will view their latest Conference League match with some confidence.

While Neil Critchley’s side have stumbled out of the starting blocks domestically, two wins from their first two games in Europe means they look likely to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Seven points is expected to be enough to finish in the top 24 of the 36 teams.

Finishing in the top eight would see them progress directly to the round of 16 while a place between ninth and 16th means they will have a home tie in their play-off round.

Cercle Brugge stand in their way on Thursday and a point or better seems more than attainable.

Not considered one of Belgium’s big names, in recent years they have tended to finish between the middle and bottom of the table, with a brief spell in the second division that almost saw them fall even further.

However, Cercle have consolidated since the takeover of Dmitry Rybolovlev – the Russian billionaire who owns Monaco – in 2017 and have quickly returned to the top flight. In the last two years, they finished sixth then fourth – their highest position since 2008.

While they are not free-spending in the way you might expect the club of a billionaire owner to be, they have improved their infrastructure behind the scenes immensely, leading to that rise up the table.

Over the summer they were dealt several blows as key players exited. Centre-back Jesper Daland joined Cardiff, Leonardo Lopes and Boris Popovic were allowed to leave, while loanees Hugo Siquet and Felix Lemarechal departed.

A rebuild followed and the recruitment work was done early but the turnover in players, plus the addition of European football – including a narrow success against Kilmarnock – has led to a poor domestic campaign.

Cercle find themselves in a relegation play-off spot as the 14th in the 16-team Pro League.

The biggest drawback for the hosts as they prepare to face Hearts is the Kevin Denkey-shaped hole up front.