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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
Sport
Alan Galindo

Hearts' rivals FC Zurich sit bottom as they strike late in basement clash in Europa League warm up

FC Zurich warmed up for the visit of Hearts with a bottom of the table clash with Winterthur.

Robbie Neilson's men face off against the Swiss side in a two-legged Europa League play-off with a spot in the competition proper up for grabs to the winner. The duo have the benefit of knowing that whoever tastes defeat will compete in the Europa Conference League group stages meaning at least eight more European fixtures.

But it's the second tier competition both will be targeting and after one draw and three defeats in their opening four league encounters, FC Zurich are now without a without a league win in five and sit in last place with just two points after this latest draw. They won twice against Linfield in their third qualifying round clash but they continue to struggle domestically and will go into the Hearts showdown without that confidence boosting first league win.

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Francisco Jose Rodriguez Araya hit the opener for Winterthur - who themselves went into the meeting without tasting victory. But FC Zurich claimed a share of the spoils late on as Fabian Rohner fired home with five minutes left to play.

Hearts meanwhile face Dundee United with the Jambos sitting on four points from two games so far this term.

They defeated Ross County at Tynecastle on the opening day before suffering a last-gasp derby sucker punch as they were forced to settle for a share of the spoils at Easter Road last week. Lawrence Shankland had fired them ahead with his first goal for the club but return Hibs fans' favourite Martin Boyle climbed off the bench to score with the final kick off the game.

Hearts' trip to Switzerland will be beamed live on the BBC with no details released yet over the return at Tynecastle.

Should Neilson and Co qualify they will discover their group stage opponents on August 26. The Europa Conference League is also drawn on the same day.

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- Robbie Neilson highlights Hibs 'talk' as he bigs up Hearts domination in recent derby clashes

- Three things we learned from Hibs vs Hearts as Boyle in heroic return and Shankland off the mark

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