Heart of Midlothian

We asked for your views after Hearts suffered a humiliating 7-1 Scottish Premiership defeat at Celtic.

Here's what some of you said:

Keith: Bad day at the office. One bad result will not define our season. We are still third in the league, have a League Cup semi-final coming up and have qualified for the Conference League. Individual mistakes cost us big time, and Celtic took full advantage. We will see what the reaction is from the players in the next few games. Hopefully, it will be positive.

Tim: If you're going to defend like a five-year-old boys' team, you're going to get punished. The manager has one way of playing and cannot adapt. It's like a rollercoaster, but this time it's an embarrassment. Haven't we learned anything from our previous big defeats in Europe? Playing like this, we will be lucky - very lucky - to finish third this year. Simply not good enough.

George: Very disappointing and a hard result to take, but I truly believe in our manager and his style of play. Seven steps back to eventually go 10 steps forward.

David: Hearts teams in the past have been criticised for going to Glasgow and not having a go, so it seems unfair to criticise them too much this time. You cannot allow for rank bad defending. Hopefully, we learn from it. And as for all these pundits who love to quote game stats, have a look at the stats for this game! They show what meaningless nonsense it is.

Matthew: I predicted a cricket score before the match, and I wasn't far off. We are so poor at the back that this battering was in the pipeline, and we have been lucky it hasn't happened yet. I fear this result might be the start of a bad run of results until we limp towards the transfer window.

Aimee: The manager talks about players learning from mistakes, but he's making more and more each week - will he also learn? That was the most insipid, pathetic defensive performance I've seen. Out with a whimper.

Celtic ominously moved four points clear in the Scottish Premiership after an astonishing goal spree humiliated last season's runners-up - and this term's putative title rivals - Hearts in Glasgow.

Read the full match report here

Have your say on the game via this link

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Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken: "Really disappointing and also the way it happened. Two set plays killed our game at the start of the game. All of their goals even, when I go back, individual mistakes and then it's difficult to win a game.

"In the set play moments, you have to be on top of your toes, you have to be on front foot to attack the ball there. Against individual mistakes, you can't do too much actually.

"Only thing that cannot happen is that everybody starts doubting now in his own qualities. Also, when you are one of the guys that made a mistake, just learn from it.

"After tomorrow, it has to be gone because there's another game to come. We have to step up again and push and keep pushing."

Rangers (£132m) have the 23rd most valuable squad in British football behind the 20 Premier League clubs and Championship duo West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Celtic (£104m) at 28th, while Hearts (£21m) are 49th and Hibernian (£15m) two places below. (Transfermarkt, external)

Hearts centre-half MJ Kamson Kamara, the 20-year-old signed from Lincoln City this summer, says Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann is helping him through a transition to right-back while on loan. (Edinburgh Evening News, external)

Read Sunday's Scottish Gossip in full.

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Portuguese winger Jota returns to the Celtic squad after dropping out of the Europa League squad in midweek as he was not registered. Summer signing Landon Emenalo is fit after his rehabilitation at parent club Chelsea and could be added to the squad. Cameron Carter-Vickers (hamstring) is a doubt and Yang Hyun-jun and Alistair Johnston (hamstring) are set to remain sidelined.

Hearts will have Tomas Magnusson available after suspension, but Ageu (muscle), Craig Halkett (Achilles), Blair Spittal (shin) and Tom Renaud (ankle) are out.

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Hearts on Sunday meet Celtic in Glasgow for the first time since their dramatic title decider on the final day of last season.

While some may think Hearts are on a revenge mission, Tynecastle midfielder Oisin McEntee says that is not true, with plenty of new additions to the squad simply eager to prove themselves against the current champions.

It will be Hearts' first visit since the final day of last season, when late Celtic goals denied the Tynecastle side their first top-flight title in more than 60 years.

McEntee acknowledges the disappointment of that afternoon still lingers but believes a new-look Hearts squad can approach the occasion without being weighed down by the past.

"I'm really, really looking forward to it," he said. "It's going to be a massive game in a big stadium.

"A lot of those boys are new and I think nothing really fazes them. I don't think there'll be a lot of that in our heads and in our minds for the game - we just want to go and win.

"It's a new group and I feel like we have a different style of play, we have a new manager, it's all different, so I think that's all we can do, just focus on the game itself.

"Genuinely, I'm not lying, I don't think it will [be about revenge]. I think we'll just focus on the game at hand and we're all looking forward to it."

• Josh McPake has scored (3) or assisted (3) six of Hearts' last seven goals scored from open play in the Scottish Premiership.

• No player has more goal involvements (7 – 4 goals, 3 assists) or chances created both overall (21) and from open play (19) in the Scottish Premiership this season than Celtic's Benjamin Nygren.

• Heart of Midlothian have scored more goals from set-pieces (excl. penalties) than any side in the Scottish Premiership this season (6). Indeed, each of Hearts' last four league goals against Celtic have come from set plays (3x corner, 1x free-kick).

• Celtic lead the 2026-27 Scottish Premiership for total shots (165), while no side has faced fewer shots in the division this term than Hearts (76, level with Rangers).

• Hearts have only won two of their last 11 away league outings (D3 L6), failing to keep a single clean sheet in this period.

• Celtic have won 14 of their last 15 league games (L1), scoring 2+ goals in 11 of those. Since the start of April, no other side has won 10+ Scottish Premiership matches.

• Last season, Heart of Midlothian picked up seven points in four league games against Celtic (W2 D1 L1), the most by a side other than Rangers in a single campaign since Motherwell in 1999-00 (also 7), and Hearts' most since 1994-95 (8).

• Celtic have won 26 of their last 29 home league games against Hearts (D1 L2), although have lost two of their last six (W4).

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Ahead of Wouter Vrancken's first visit to Celtic Park, the Hearts head coach has warned his side not to "live in the past" following last season's final-day heartbreak.

This will be their first time going back to Celtic since that dramatic final-day defeat, but a lot has changed since then for Hearts, with a new manager at the helm and 12 new first-team signings.

Hearts currently sit third in the Scottish Premiership, but a win on Sunday could take them two points behind a struggling Celtic.

Vrancken knows the task ahead of him and insists that his side will only be focused on what is in front of them, and not dwelling on the past.

"I am convinced that the players will be [focused] on the game on Sunday and not in the past, you can't live in the past.

"You have to move forward and look forward, and you have to take on the next one.

"I am convinced and confident that it will be like that [from the players].

"I hope the fire is there every game we play, and not only because something happened in the past, you also don't look in the past too much because it is negative energy, and we need positive energy.

"This fire has to burn when you play every game, especially the top games, when you can make a result.

"We have to take all the positives [from Nordsjaelland draw] into what is coming.

"I look forward to every game we play, you live for the top games, you want to play the top games, that's why you are a top professional in sports, and you want to perform and get results at that level.

"We will work hard for it."

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Oisin McEntee says his Hearts side can take plenty of positives from their Conference League draw as they prepare to face league leaders Celtic.

Nicklas Rojkjaer's 86th-minute strike deflected off McCart to wrong-foot goalkeeper Beau Reus as Nordsjaelland cancelled out McEntee's opener late on at Tynecastle.

Despite the late heartbreak, which denied Hearts a win in their opening fixture of the competition this season, McEntee is adamant his side can compete at this level and must remain optimistic.

"There's definitely a sense of frustration," he said. "But there's a lot of positives to take from the game.

"You're playing in Europe against a very good side, there's definitely frustration, but we just have to look at the positives.

"We had a really good performance, we could have had a lot more goals tonight, they scored coming to the end, which happens in games.

"I think the way we play it, it's going to be hard to replicate it for the full 90 minutes, but I think a lot of the boys put in a shift and that's all you can ask."

There are another two European games to play in the next three weeks - Trabzonspor in Turkey next week and Thun in Switzerland in early November. Before all that, a trip to Celtic Park on Sunday.

McEntee wants his side to recognise that they have the ability to prove a tough test for anyone they face.

"I feel like we'll be a dangerous team for anyone to play against, we know that we're a confident, confident group and we just want to go and do our best in every single game," he said.

"You want to be playing in these games against the best players in Europe, so, we're excited."

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Hearts will view Sunday's visit to Celtic Park as "a great opportunity" to avenge last season's disappointment of losing the final game - and the Scottish title - to the reigning champions, former Tynecastle striker Connor Sammon has suggested.

Celtic ended a run of three defeats with a convincing win in Motherwell on Sunday, but they were brought back down to earth with Thursday's 4-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica.

Sammon points out that the Portuguese "are a top-class outfit" and nobody will be surprised at the result but has no doubt travelling to Lisbon will have an impact.

At the same time, Hearts were drawing 1-1 at home to Nordsjaelland in the Conference League and would "be disappointed" to have conceded a late equaliser.

"You think of the last time the two teams faced each other at Parkhead and the drama that happened on that occasion, so this is a good test of where Hearts are under Wouter Vrancken," Sammon suggested on the BBC Scottish Football Podcast.

"I think they're the top scorers in the league just now - attacking threats from Josh McPake, Calvin Miller, Claudo Braga, they've got goals throughout the team."

Sammon pointed out that, despite the win over Motherwell, there "is a real worry" among Celtic fans about the club's direction and there was uncertainty over whether Martin O'Neill would continue as manager after the international break.

"It's a real testing time for them just now and, without a doubt, if you're a Hearts player going into that game, you're thinking to yourself, you know, we've got a great opportunity here," he said, stressing Celtic's defensive fragility.

However, despite all that, Sammon is still predicting a 3-1 win for the hosts on Sunday.

Hearts fans, we asked for your views on your side's 1-1 Conference League draw with Nordsjaelland.

Here's a taste of what you had to say...

Campbell: Hearts had the chances to win this match, but to be fair a draw reflected the game pretty well.

Jim: The game was there for winning the last 15 mins, and at the start of the second half we looked lost in midfield, subs should have been on 10 mins from the end to help the midfield out

Chris: Gutted not to get the three points, but we watched them play football the second half and got punished for it.

The triple substitution at the end was needed five minutes before, as it was obvious they were pushing hard for a goal. Frustrating.

Steve: Chucking away three points to a deflected goal sums us up, we were not in it the second half at all. How they escaped a red card, I'll never know - not a situation we would have escaped, I can assure you.

Alison: Too many missed chances and a disjointed second half means we can't complain about not getting the three points, but it's infuriating that it's individual errors causing our own downfall.

Thought the referee started well and nose-dived as the game went on. Penalty and red card missed, with one-sided yellow cards didn't help in the slightest. Gutted.

Eric: Inexperience played its part in the final result, you could feel the nerves within the last 20 minutes, and we badly needed substitutions earlier - a real issue for the manager is the speed of making changes.

Another unfortunate goal to concede, and I just wish we could get a little bit of luck for once in Europe!

Christopher: I thought we were fantastic in the first half and passive in the second. The manager complained about the energy the subs brought - he made the changes 10 minutes too late.

It's done now. We didn't lose, and we now need to prepare for a trip over to Glasgow.

David: Disappointing not to see it through. I see Vrancken is bemoaning the lack of energy from the subs, but I think he left it a bit late for them to affect the game. By the time most came on, we had finally conceded. Some sensational forward play again... but we need a goalscorer.

Hearts suffered crushing late disappointment in the opening game of their Conference League campaign as Nordsjaelland snatched a point at Tynecastle.

Read the full match report here.

Have your say on the game here.

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Nordsjaelland head coach Jens Olsen has admired Hearts' progress from afar but sees "a potential" for an away win as the Danes target progress to the knock-out stages of European competition for the first time.

The 51-year-old is giving "the needed respect to Hearts" for Thursday's Conference League opener in Edinburgh but is not content with just being "proud" to lead his side to a group stage for only the third time.

"I think it was 10 years ago or something, we've been in the Champions League group stage without winning," he said. "I think we got one point.

"Then we were in the Conference League group stage three years ago, having 10 points in the group with four teams but didn't promote. So of course we want to break that wall down this time and try to play European football after New Year."

Nevertheless, Olsen recognised Hearts' good recent form.

"I have seen a lot of the games recently," he said. "A great season last year, changing the coach and also selling a few players, but I think they started well, and the new coach is trying to build some layer on the style of play. I think it's an interesting place that Hearts are in at the moment."

Olsen recognised the threat from the "front four" of Claudio Braga, James Wilson and wingers Josh McPake and Calvin Miller.

However, he was particularly impressed with right-back Jordi Altena.

"Good dynamic player, can defend and can also overtake the wingers' position on the side," said Olsen, who said he had a difficult job balancing the need to win, selling young talent and trying to play "beautiful football".

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Former Hearts midfielder Ryan McGowan reckons Nordsjaelland could use the Tynecastle atmosphere to their advantage in their Conference League opener.

Jens Olsen's side currently sit fourth in Denmark's Superliga and are renowned for their youth development and recruitment model.

McGowan believes that their current form, coupled with many of their players having lofty ambitions for their own careers, could see them settle into the game swiftly and savour the Gorgie atmosphere.

"I think it is an amazing place to play football," McGowan said on BBC Scotland's Scottish Football Podcast.

"I think, especially as a Hearts player, it can give you that extra energy, and that can give you the confidence and just everything.

"It's really, really good stadium atmosphere, a cauldron to play in, but at the same time for really, really good players they really like it as well.

"If you're a really, really top European player or wanting to reach that top, going to Tynecastle, you're just thinking this is a proper stadium; this is what gets your juices flowing in terms of I wanted to do that, and a little bit of my worry is that a lot of these players tonight for Nordsjaelland will be thinking, this is really up my street.

"They won't be affected by it, as much as maybe the likes of players in Scotland, for example, or for smaller clubs in Europe that are coming over.

"I just have a feeling that a lot of these players tonight will be thinking, yeah, I'm right up for this, I really enjoy this atmosphere."

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• Since a 6-1 thrashing away to Benfica in Europa League qualifying, Hearts have lost just once in 12 outings.

• Since beating Swiss side St Gallen to qualify for the Conference League, Nordsjaelland have won three of their eight games.

• Since losing 2-0 to Sturm Graz in Champions League qualifying, Hearts are unbeaten in seven home games and thrashed St Mirren 5-0 on Saturday to sit third in the Premiership.

• Nordsjaelland drew 0-0 at home to ninth-placed OB on Friday to sit fourth in the Danish Superliga, six points behind leaders Copenhagen.

• Hearts last reached the Conference League two years ago, when they finished 25th.

• Nordsjaelland last played in the Conference League three years ago, finishing third in their group behind Fenerbahce and Ludogorets Razgrad despite thrashing the Bulgarians 7-1 at home.

• Hearts only played Danish opposition once previously - two years ago, when they lost 2-0 away to Copenhagen in the Conference League.

• Nordsjaelland have played Scottish opposition once previously, beating Queen of the South 2-0 away and 5-0 at home in Uefa Cup qualifying in 2008.

• Hearts' best European performance came in the Uefa Cup in 1989, when they reached the quarter-finals before losing to Bayern Munich 2-1 on aggregate.

• Nordsjaelland's European high point was reaching the Champions League in 2012, when they finished fourth in a group won by Juventus and in which Chelsea finished third.

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Hearts winger Calvin Miller has described his side's hectic schedule over the coming weeks as "nuts" but says it is a challenge he is relishing.

The Tynecastle club begin their Conference League campaign at home to Danish side Nordsjaelland on Thursday before travelling to Glasgow for a Scottish Premiership match with Celtic on Sunday.

Hearts face a demanding run of fixtures, with eight games in the space of 23 days as they juggle domestic and European commitments.

Miller, who joined Hearts in the summer after three seasons at Falkirk, has scored six goals this season, including one in the Conference League play-off victory over Rapid Vienna in August.

The 28-year-old believes the schedule will require the whole squad to be ready to contribute.

"It's huge, especially for the league as well," he said.

"Everyone's going to be needed and you've got to be ready and be in tip-top condition.

"It's nuts, but when you want to keep playing games and they're coming thick and fast, it's something you do want to be a part of."

Miller has enjoyed a remarkable rise in recent seasons, having been playing third-tier football with Falkirk just three years ago.

He says the opportunity to represent Hearts in Europe is a dream come true.

"If you have a look at where I was maybe three years ago, it just sums it up, to be honest," he added.

"Being in League 1 and playing in Europe, it's stuff you'd dream of as a kid, to play in the highest competition.

"For me at the moment, it's a surreal moment.

"That night in Vienna, I still can't believe it actually happened, so I'm just trying to keep making more dreams become believable."