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Claudio Braga Hearts transfer exit addressed by Wouter Vrancken as boss sets Benfica challenge Jambos face mission impossible against Portuguese giants - but Vrancken insists tie can still help build confidence in his side. Wouter Vrancken is praying Claudio Braga doesn’t follow Alexandros Kyziridis out the door at Hearts before the end of the summer window. The Jambos head into tomorrow’s Europa League qualifying dead rubber against Benfica minus Greek ace Kyziridis who sealed a £1.7m move to Turkish Super Lig side FK Corum this week. While no concrete offers have been received for Braga, who netted his first goal of the season on Sunday, there’s interest from across Europe and the MLS with Ligue 1 big guns Lyon and Turks Trabzonspor eyeing the PFA Scotland and SFWA player of the year. And with three weeks left of the window, Vrancken admits the Jambos must be ready to move for a replacement should Braga - valued at around £8m by Tynecastle chiefs - move. He said: “For Claudio, nothing concrete that I know. So as long as it's not coming to me, I think he's staying at the moment. “So I'm happy when I don't hear anything. So let's hope that it sticks until the beginning of September. “Yeah, I’ve had conversations with him. But that's between me and Claudio. We're open to each other and the most important thing is that Claudio is a personality. As long as he's here, he will be 100 per cent committed and will go 100 per cent in the games. “He's here now. I work with him now. So I don't know. I cannot watch in the future. “He’s a good player and it's a transfer window. So then you're always a little bit nervous if he stays or not, or he goes or not. “So the only thing we can do there as a club is being ready when it happens. “I’m also keen to keep every good player with us. As a coach, you always want to keep your best players with you. But it's the world of football. You have to cope with that and know how the transfer window can be. “And it's a responsibility for us as a club to be ready when something happens. “And not only when players leave, but also when you see that you have a need somewhere. So you have to always be open for adaptations. “Kyziridis was also one who brought a personality in the group. I really liked working with him, really liked him as a person. And like I said, this is football, this is the transfer window in football. “So I wish him all the best. And replacing him, I think the guys did replace him already really good on Sunday. “And then we'll see in general, it's not about one position, just we speak about all the team and seeing gaps where we can need somebody or not.” Hearts will again be without injured trio Harry Milne, Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Stephen Kingsley for tomorrow's second leg at Tynecastle. Benfica arrive in Edinburgh with a huge 6-1 first leg advantage after tearing the Jambos apart in Lisbon seven days ago. Vrancken expects Milne to be available after Sunday’s League Cup clash with Inverness. But before that there’s pride to be restored against Marco Silva’s Eagles as they look to build on Sunday’s 4-0 thrashing of Dundee United in Gorgie - as well as giving a boost to the Scottish co-efficient. He said: “A result would for sure increase the confidence level. But also good performance. “You cannot rule out the quality of Benfica. Going back on it, last year they didn't lose one game and were third in the league. “So a long time ago, the only home game they lost was against Real Madrid. So it's a nice team to watch also. It's a quality team. “We have to be ready to give it all out there, that we have a good performance, that we can take this feeling with us to Inverness in the next games. “This is the thing we have to look for. When it's helping the coefficient, it's a nice extra.” Vrancken took heart from Sunday’s mauling of United - his first win as Jambos boss. Now he’s looking for his players to keep momentum building with the games coming thick and fast. He said: “The players are working really hard, trying to learn new things, being open for it, coachable, all those things. So the next thing you need is some results. “Sunday was a good start and, like you said, the way it happened, not only the result but the way we did it, is also nice to see and it's also good for the fans to see that it works. So we're gelling together at the moment. “I think we did also some good games before the European games, let's say, because I think it's only the European games that we were not at the level that we have to be to compete on that level. “When you see the loss in Aberdeen, it's also an unneeded loss. And then you see the friendlies, similar when you play Rayo Vallecano here. It's also a good team in Europe. So we did a really, really good game against them. “And then you play the European games and then we come back on short preparation. But again, to compete with those teams, not even Benfica. This is another league, another level. “The guys here, the players here, need experience. And like I said, I think a good preparation with a lot of volume and to be ready physically is very important. “And experience there on the level. And you can only have experience there when you play there. So like we said, after the Benfica game, we played with Laurent Mendy, who was playing fifth tier in England. “We played with Tom Renaud, who was third tier, now third tier in France. Amadou also, but he didn't play in Benfica, but he is also third tier. He was in France. “So these guys need the experience to make this a next step. But this is a very good possibility to learn a lot.”