Liam Boyce rues Hearts sliding doors moment against Zurich but insists Jambos have set Conference League bar

Liam Boyce insists Hearts have set the bar for Europe with their display against FC Zurich which had everything but a bit of luck.

The Jambos striker lamented a host of missed chances during a 1-0 loss to the Swiss champions which ended their Europa League hopes as they fell into the safety net of a Conference League group spot and the guarantee of £5million which it brings. Despite the 3-1 aggregate exit from UEFA’s secondary competition, Boyce is adamant their Tynecastle showing on Thursday night is proof they’re ready to meet the continent’s handiest teams – in Fiorentina, Istanbul Basaksehir and RFS – head on.

He said: “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. I’m not involved in the business side of things but you can see our squad this season and the way we’ve brought in more quality players and made the team better. It’s put us in a good position to attack these games.

“We just need to take belief from that, keep learning and keep 11 men on the pitch. Then we’ll have a chance. 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 cheering us on. They kept pushing so if we’d taken one chance in