Hearts restored some European pride in a 1-1 draw with Benfica as they dropped out of the Europa League.
Tomas Magnusson had the home fans dreaming of a famous win over their illustrious opponents after firing in the opener in the 77th minute.
But the Portuguese giants, cruising from a 6-1 third qualifying round first leg win a week earlier, levelled less than a minute later through Dodi Lukebakio to wrap up a 7-2 aggregate success.
It was nevertheless an encouraging display from Wouter Vrancken’s side against a team who made some seven changes from the first leg.
The consolation for the Tynecastle outfit is a place in the Conference League play-offs, where they will face Rapid Vienna of Austria.
The hosts made two changes from Sunday’s 4-0 Premiership thrashing of Dundee United, with Stuart Findlay and Sabri Guendouz coming in.
Despite the wholesale changes made by Benfica, it did not affect their rhythm as they fashioned some early chances.
Jhon Duran, who climbed off the bench to net the fifth in Lisbon, picked up good positions around the box but his finishing deserted him.
First the former Aston Villa man fired a left-footed volley well over after just two minutes.
A fine move that carved Hearts open with some neat one-touch football then culminated in Duran firing a left-footed shot from just inside the area into the side netting.
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Hearts were having to do a lot of chasing with Benfica controlling possession off the ball, but the Gorgie outfit registered a shot on target of their own in the 12th minute courtesy of Guendouz.
Tom Renaud and Josh McPake were involved in a patient build-up before the Frenchman drove across the 18-yard line and hit a low shot straight at Samuel Soares.
Unfortunately for Hearts fans that was to be a rare foray into the Benfica box in the first half. Visiting midfielder Georgiy Sudakov had a downward header comfortably collected by Beau Reus before the Hearts goalkeeper then got down to a close range Duran shot.
The move was kept alive by Benfica and Amar Dedic saw a deflected header come back off the bar.
Hearts played with greater confidence in a brighter start to the second half and started to cause some problems.
Guendouz ran on to a deft ball over the top from Renaud but his first-time shot bounced wide from just inside the area with the keeper to beat.
The playmaker then forced Soares into a block as he stretched to reach a Braga pass.
Hearts thought they had taken the lead in the 64th minute when Calvin Miller swept home a McPake cut back but the latter was ruled to be offside in the build-up.
Magnusson then had Tynecastle rocking with a thunderous first-time drive from 25 yards that flew past Soares.
However, with the home fans still celebrating, Lukebakio rolled a well-placed shot past Reus from just outside the box.
