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Wouter Vrancken admits Hearts lacked 'guts' in Benfica shellacking as he provides Claudio Braga future update Jambos were hit for six as they look set to drop into the play-off round of the Conference League Wouter Vrancken reckons lack of guts and stupid penalties cost Hearts dearly as they crashed to Benfica, writes Craig Swan from Lisbon. The Tynecastle troops were left shell-shocked by a club record-equalling Euro loss is Lisbon. Hearts’ defeat was a shuddering setback with Vrancken bemoaning key aspects of the 6-1 hammering. The Belgian warned Benfica could kill if his team made mistakes and also confessed some setbacks were self inflicted. He said: “Especially at the end, yeah. When you play Benfica and you just kick balls forward, they are going to come back just as quickly as you kick them. “You saw it first half, maybe because of lack of experience or nervousness, because we lost an early goal, but we were just kicking balls forward. Then you never get in the game. “A few moments in the first half, you find spaces and you give yourself a little bit of air. But it was disappointing to see that we didn’t show more guts in these moments. “The second half was really good. We tried to play football, to find spaces and to stick to the game plan, especially in and out of possession. “We found those spaces and scored a great goal. At that moment, we could have finished the game 4-1 and carried the positive feeling from the second half. “But after making it 4-1, the team felt we could go for 4-2 and maybe do more and we took a bit more risk on the pitch. “That opened the game up, and as we said before, you have to manage these moments. They have exceptional quality and then they kill you. “When you give away two stupid penalties to begin with and they outplay you in open play, that is their quality. “But if you manage these moments better, you do not give it away so easily. You keep the good feeling of the second half, which was about 25 minutes. If we had finished at the same score, it would have been a nicer feeling.” Vrancken reckons he learned plenty about his team in the harsh environment and continued: “Yes, for sure. Like we said yesterday, for everybody individually it is a learning process, especially against a side like this. “Some of our players were in the fifth tier last year, some in the third tier in France last year and now they have to play at Benfica. It is not easy for those guys, and we knew it would not be easy.” Vrancken, who revealed he took off Laurent Mendy and Harry Milne at half-time due to slight injury concerns, was asked about a run of four straight defeats since taking charge, but replied: “We could always hope to take a result here, but as we said before the game, the only team that beat them in a long period was Real Madrid and they did not lose a single league game last year. “We can try to be hopeful about getting a result here, but when you are realistic, our guys play at a lower level, so it is not that realistic. “The main thing I do not want to see is those moments where we do not stick together. Just take the result. It is 4-1 at this moment, we did not do well in the first half in my opinion, so take this result and keep the feeling from the second half with you. “When you do not, and you give away two goals, including a stupid penalty, then the result slips away.” It was not an ideal homecoming for Claudio Braga, but Vrancken wants him in place for the campaign ahead, despite transfer interest during this window. He said: “As a coach, I always want to keep the best players for the team. I definitely want to keep him. “But in a transfer window, you never know. I have been a coach long enough to know that everything can happen at any moment in the transfer window. “The main thing is that the club has to be ready if something happens. Let us hope that he can stay.”