Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland at Easter Road

It's rarely easy for Scottish teams in Europe as we all know and this is a test for Hibernian.

On the flip side, what an incentive they have to move towards potential group-stage football for the first time ever.

A European place is hard earned over the course of a campaign. They won't want to throw it away here with home advantage there to be capitalised on.

Benfica are ranked 18th in Uefa's club coefficient rankings, a massive 120 places above Hearts, such is the task facing tonight's visitors.

They reached the knockout phase of the Champions League under Jose Mourinho after victories over Ajax, Napoli and Real Madrid before Real got their revenge in the play-off round with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Mourinho has since returned to Los Blancos and been replaced in the Benfica dugout by former Everton and Fulham boss Marco Silva.

Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis is a prolific goalscorer, netting 30 times in all competitions last season, while Norway's Andreas Schjelderup and Rafa Silva are dangerous wingers.

Pavlidis also comes into this game in good form having scored four as Benfica thrashed St Gallen 5-0 in the second leg of their Europa League second qualifying round tie to seal a 6-2 aggregate success.

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland in Lisbon

Hearts striker Claudio Braga said at his media conference that "nothing is impossible", but the task that lies ahead of his team can almost be put into that category.

Around 2,000 Hearts fans have made the trip to Lisbon and, without fear of contradiction, they arrive with hope rather than expectation of a victory.

In some ways this is all about this Hearts team trying to rebuild confidence that must be shattered by what happened in the past few months. Football can be very unforgiving but also unpredictable.

Hearts fans tonight are hoping ‘mission impossible’ can be accomplished.

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After finishing as runners-up in the Macedonian First Football League, Artim Pollozhani's Shkendija have already come through two Conference League qualifying rounds.

They defeated Gibraltar's Europa 6-0 over two legs but faced a much sterner test against Slovenia's Bravo. A 2-1 first-leg deficit was overturned in Skopje, with a 3-1 home-leg victory.

Shkendija's squad is primarily homegrown with a smattering of foreign players such as Brazilian Rafa, Gabon forward Fahd Ndzengue and Gambia goalkeeper Baboucarr Gaye.

Former North Macedonia striker Besart Ibraimi is club captain and at 39 is their most experienced player.

Last season, Shkendija reached the league phase of the Conference League and progressed to the knockout play-off round, losing heavily on aggregate to Turkey's Samsunspor.

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Hibs head coach David Gray tells BBC Scotland: "It's great Boyle has managed to be available. We know what he brings. He's very experienced and has been a very important player for this club for a very long time, but we need him to be at his very best tonight.

"An extra day recovery is a big thing for us as well. The players looked bright in training and this is what it's all about, these European nights.

"It's a different way of playing [being at home first] - you can't go gung ho because there's still a lot more football to be played. No matter what the score is tonight there's still another 90 minutes.

"There's a real buzz about playing in Europe, that's what it's about."

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Derek McInnes adds: "We need to be far more concentrated, far more focused, far more aggressive, far more talkative and organised to stop these types of things happening.

"We've seen a lot tonight of what I thought Rangers were last season.

"I thought they gave up too many chances and gave teams too much encouragement.

"Having watched them, I knew it would be a tough game, particularly here at home and they're a strong side in a strong Polish league, but I still expect us to come here and win the game, and we're disappointed that we haven't."

Rangers manager Derek McInnes tells BBC Scotland: "I just felt we beat ourselves, to be honest.

"I thought we started the game really well with an element of control. The team we picked was to make sure that their rotations in midfield weren't a problem for us - and they weren't.

"I thought our three that were fine in there at times.

"We got off to a good start, a good bit of combination play, being patient with what we were trying to do and putting a bit of stress on our defender to defend the situation.

"And obviously, he scores an own goal and it's a perfect start. And then we stopped doing what was working for us.

"We made two mistakes for the two goals."

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Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken tells BBC Scotland: "In sport, anything can happen. We have to be realistic, of course. We're playing a top European team.

"Laurent Mendy was playing fifth tier in England a few weeks ago and now he's playing Benfica. That's football and we have to put everything on the pitch and stick together.

"When you press them, you have to be perfect. You cannot leave spaces.

"They're comfortable on the ball, they will play through the gaps. It will be difficult, but we have to take our moments to try and play football."

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Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland in Lisbon

The pre-match show here in Lisbon is well and truly under way and, despite the stadium only being around half-full at the moment, the atmosphere is really cranking up.

Not sure how these Hearts players will cope with this. A huge task tonight.

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "I think it was a good performance. I'm very, very proud of the players.

"I think we dug deep, I thought the young players who came on in the second half impacted the game. I think we played parts of the game at a high level.

"It was an unfortunate situation where we conceded a goal. It's a very experienced number nine they have, it can happen. I'm proud of the performance and I think we did a good job here.

"The players started to be even more brave in their decision-making. It's mainly the players who decided to say 'let's play'. The players turned up the heat a little bit and that was good to see.

"Home advantage is always a thing. To be able to play at Fir Park with all of our people in the stands, it's something to look forward to."

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Andy Halliday
Former Rangers midfielder on BBC Sportsound

The positives would be the introduction of the half-time subs, Findlay Curtis and Nico Raskin in particular. Both played with so much enthusiasm.

Curtis had a fearless nature to try to make a positive impact. Not everything came off, but when he gets the ball, he drives at players, he plays one-two, he's running off the ball and having efforts at goal.

That alone sparked Rangers into that 5% or 10% more on the ball.

Steven Thompson
Former Rangers striker on BBC Sportsound

The second-half performance was better, in an attacking sense. Findlay Curtis had a large part to play in that. He didn't have that first thought of, when he received the ball, laying it back or looking for a sitting midfielder.

He wants to go and take people on. It's brilliant to see that, because there's not enough of that in this Rangers side. He put in a number of good deliveries.

His performance was one of the major positives from the evening.

Derek McInnes will be angry at the first half, but he can take positives from the second half.

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Andy Halliday
Former Rangers and Hearts midfielder on BBC Sportsound

I always love when we've got a positive outlook and our sides have a bit more of a go, but Hearts need to take a bit of realism into account.

He's got four forwards on the pitch, Blair Spittal as a deep-lying midfielder. Altena and Milne, both attack-minded full-backs.

To say that's bold would be the understatement of all understatements.

Shkendija have made three changes from their 3-1 victory over Slovenian side Bravo in the previous qualifying round.

In goals, Ferat Ramani replaces Astrit Amzai, while outfield, versatile defender Bojan Dimoski and midfielder Sebastjan Spahiu are replaced in the starting line-up by Jovan Manev and Endrit Krasniqi.

David Gray goes with the same starting line-up from Scottish Premiership defeat by Motherwell at the weekend.

Forward Martin Boyle, who was a doubt for the game, is fit enough to start for Hibs.

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Back-up goalkeeper Samuel Soares gets a rare start for Benfica in place of number one Anatoliy Trubin.

That's one of three changes to the side that thrashed St Gallen 5-0 in their last game.

There's another in defence, with Antonio Silva out after joining Bournemouth for a reported £26m. Tomas Araujo comes in to replace him and captain the side, having reported back from the World Cup with Portugal.

And, on the wing, 20-year-old Gianluca Prestianni starts after serving his Uefa ban for using a homophobic slur towards Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior.

Two changes for Hearts from the side that threw away a win at Pittodrie on Saturday evening - and they come at the top end of the pitch.

Pierre Landry Kabore is in, with Amadou Ba-Sy dropping to the bench. Neither have scored yet this season.

Winger Alexandros Kzyiridis also comes in, with Sabah Kerjota named among the subs after his very first start in a Hearts shirt.

On the bench, there's places for young defenders MJ Kamson-Kamara and Matthew Gillies, who could both make debuts if called upon.

Hibernian: Sallinger, Passlack, Kerr, O'Hora, Obita, Mulligan, Chaiwa, Mayor, Elding, Boyle, Lowe.

Substitutes: Smith, Owens, Hanley, Newell, Klidje, Molotnikov, Suto, Wright, Megwa, J MacIntyre, Campbell, Abdulai.

Shkendija: Ramani, Trumci, Manev, Melliqi, Zejnullai, Rafael Freitas, D Islami, Tamba, Krasniqi, Kryeziu, Ndzengue.

Substitutes: Amzai, B Ibraimi, Murati, Ceka, Krstevski, Isa, Spahiu, Ramadani, Gjorgjiveski.

Benfica: Soares, Dahl, Lenglet, Araujo, Bah, Barrenechea, Rafa Silva, Barrerio, Suakov, Prestianni, Pavlidis.

Substitutes: Trubin, Lukebakio, Kaminski, Manu Silva, Dedic, Rios, Schjelderup, Duran, Indio, Neto, Cabral, Figueiredo.

Heart of Midlothian: Reus, Altena, McEntee, Findlay, Milne, Spittal, Mendy, Miller, Braga, Kyziridis, Kabore.

Substitutes: Clark, Fulton, McCart, Renaud, McPake, Guendouz, Wilson, Magnusson, Kamson-Kamara, Kerjota, Gillies, Ba-Sy.