Heart of Midlothian will enter the Europa League play-off after Atalanta secured their place in the top four of Serie A.

Steven Naismith's men had a chance to skip the play-off in August and advance straight into the league phase of Europe's secondary competition. It, however, required the Italians to finish outside the top four following their success in the Europa League final as well as Borussia Dortmund defeating Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Gian Piero Gasperini's side followed up their 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen with a 3-0 home success against Torino. The result secured at least fourth place with a game to spare. The victory meant they leapfrogged Bologna in their penultimate fixture of the season. Bologna have already completed their campaign and no team can now overtake Atalanta.

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Hearts, therefore, won't need to worry about the result of the Champions League final on Saturday.

The Tynecastle Park side can now cast their eyes toward the draw for the Europa League play-off which will take place on August 5 where they will be one of 24 sides in the hat. LASK of Austria, Belgian giants Anderlecht, Turkey's Besiktas and TSC of Serbia are four others already ensured of a play-off spot. They will be joined by 13 teams from the third qualifying round and six teams dropping down from Champions League qualification. 

The ties are scheduled for August 22 and 29. 

If Hearts lose the tie they will drop into the Conference League league phase where they will play six games, all against different opposition. 

Naismith admitted he likes the new format and had his say on what he thought of the possibility of advancing straight into the Europa League league phase.

"I think every season come March time there are different scenarios of what could happen," he said. "What will happen, will happen. As players and coaches, you want to be involved in the biggest tournament you can be. For us, that's the Europa League. If we're in that, then that's brilliant. No matter what happens, we have the opportunity to get in there.

"Having the fallback of the Conference League is a good one to have. The biggest thing is we've got European football for the first half of the season. We will look forward to the challenges."