Heart of Midlothian F.C. played their first official match in competitive European football on 3 September 1958; losing 5-1 against Standard Liège in the European Cup. This made the club only the third Scottish and fifth British team to compete in Europe at the time. Hearts have been beaten on two occasions by the club who would go on to win the competition and have also lost twice to the eventual runnersâÂÂup.
Hearts' best showing in European competition was in the 1988âÂÂ89 UEFA Cup, where they reached the quarterâÂÂfinals and narrowly lost 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate to German giants Bayern Munich. Since then, Hearts became both the firstâÂÂever Scottish club and the firstâÂÂever British club to reach the new group stage format of the 2004âÂÂ05 UEFA Cup (now the UEFA Europa League). They also qualified for the 2006âÂÂ07 UEFA Champions League, becoming the first non Old Firm team in Scotland to do so since the tournament changed from the European Cup to the Champions League.
The club has an unfortunate record of having never progressed through a tie which has finished level on aggregate after two legs. They lost playâÂÂoff matches by a single goal to LausanneâÂÂSport in the 1963âÂÂ64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and to eventual runnersâÂÂup Real Zaragoza in the 1965âÂÂ66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and they lost due to the away goals rule against Dukla Prague, Red Star Belgrade and Stuttgart in the 1986âÂÂ87 UEFA Cup, 1996âÂÂ97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and 2000âÂÂ01 UEFA Cup respectively.
Goalkeeper Craig Gordon currently holds the record of playing in the most European matches for Hearts; making 27 appearances from 2001 to 2024. John Robertson, with seven goals, is the club's top scorer in European competitions.
Note: In all cases the Hearts score is listed first.