LIAM BOYCE has admitted he'll have sleepless nights following his headed Hearts miss against FC Zurich after the Tynecastle club’s Europa League dreams were ended.
Robbie Neilson’s enjoyed large periods of possession in the first half against their Swiss rivals, but ultimately failed to find the back of the net, with Boyce and Alan Forrest having their best chances.
A second-half red card for Jorge Grant ended Hearts’ hopes of a Europa League group stage and Zurich ended up scoring through Fabian Rohner to ensure they won 3-1 on aggregate over the tie.
Hearts now enter the group stages of the Europa Conference League, but Boyce admits there is a sense of disappointment in the squad.
He said: "We spoke as a group after the game and said we can be proud at what we've achieved. After that first half especially, I thought we were very good. We dominated for that 45 minutes but we just didn't take our chances.
"I had a big one with the header but if we'd scored then it would have changed the whole game. Zurich just couldn't seem to handle us, they were just kicking the ball long as we had them hemmed in.
"We went out in the second half and tried to do the same again but the rad card changed everything. I don't know if it was a penalty or a dive as I haven't seen it back.
"That changes games in Europe as you can't get that press on with ten men. We've gone from having them rattled and kicking it long but then we had ten minutes and any opponent looks better with a man advantage.
“Zurich appeared more composed and we couldn't get the press as we'd have been leaving one of their men open. In the end they took full advantage of it.”
On his header, Boyce continued: "I was already thinking about celebrating to be honest. You head the ball down and into the ground as the keeper has less chance of saving it.
“I just couldn't believe the ball bounced that high. I thought the ball was already in so it's a sore one.
"We were in the position of getting plenty of crosses into the box but we didn't take our chances. We had good phases of play and Alan Forrest had a chance as well when I slipped him in.
"The Zurich defender does unbelievably well to get over and block his shot. It was one of those thing where it could have gone through someone's legs but that's the most disappointing thing that we just didn't capitalise on those chances when we were really, really good.”
Despite the disappointment of losing out on a Europa League group stage spot, Boyce is still excited to test himself in Uefa’s new look Conference League.
He explained: "When I first came to the club we had been relegated, we went down a league and came back up so it shows you how far we have come.
“We are disappointed because of how well we played in the first half but we now have six European games to look forward to. It's going to be brilliant to have more nights like that.
"When I played international football, what was good about it was being able to go and play against the best teams and see how good you are. We played against the Swiss champions and played very well after defending well in the first-leg.
"We need to take belief from how well we played and when we do the right things we will cause anyone problems.
"Even with the chances we were missing, you still saw our fans lifting us and cheering us on.
"They kept pushing and pushing us so if we'd taken one chance in the first half it would have been a completely different game."
