RFS. RFS. Rosenborg.

Heart of Midlothian have won three games in Europe across the past two years. Entering the club's 25th European campaign, the message from the squad is: "We want more".

Success on the continent is not a regular occurrence for Hearts. It means that when it comes around it tastes and feels all that more special. The next step is to become a more consistent presence on the European stage. To become a team that can mix it with clubs who have more experience with tournament football. With clubs who expect to be travelling around the continent.

Viktoria Plzen are such a club. Fifteen consecutive years of European football. Champions League. Europa League. Conference League. They've been around it all. They've played and competed with the continent's elite. While the tie is winnable, doing so would represent somewhat of a scalp.

“It is a great experience," Stephen Kingsley said of playing in Europe. "It's something that, if you look at the last time out in the Conference League, we didn't really perform against the two big teams and we got a couple of great results against the team that we should be beating, but we want more. 

“We've talked about what we want at the beginning of the season, our goals, our targets.

“We've certainly not started the way we wanted to start. We've got a chance to go over to Plzen and try and get it by the scruff of the neck and take control of what's going on, right the things that are wrong and bring back a bit of a feel-good factor because just now it's not where we want to be."

Hearts have gained good experience across the past two years. They could have overcome FC Zurich the last time they featured in the Europa League play-off round. They produced a rousing performance to see off Rosenborg last season before being well beaten in the end by PAOK. Even then, that included a first leg at Tynecastle Park where the team missed an opportunity to take a positive result to Greece.

The good thing, however, is expectation on the European stage is rising. It shouldn't just be the case of thinking, 'We should just enjoy it being in Europe'.

“It's going to be a tough game obviously but this is why we come to a club like Hearts and that's why you play here," Kingsley said. “You take that pressure that is there and you harness it in the right way and you use it to push forward and get good results.

“That's the pressure of being at a club like Hearts. Where else would you want that pressure? I'd rather have it than not and it's up to us now to put in the performances so we can get these results."

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Kingsley has not allowed himself to look at the possibilities on offer in the Europa League where Manchester United, Roma, Lazio, Lyon, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad lie in wait. He did, however, have a glance toward Thursday's opponents and the stats from their third round qualifier against Kryvbas.

After the disappointment of Falkirk was put to one side, the focus switched to Plzen, the strengths and weaknesses.

Hearts will take heart from the fact the squad is more experienced in Europe after the last two campaigns. There should be no shocks or surprises. There should be excitement and anticipation.

“We've got new players that have come into the system but for me personally, it was the first experience I ever had of European football a couple of years ago. It's definitely an exciting prospect," Kingsley said. “We've known that since we qualified for it, obviously the tail end of last season. We need to be excited about this.

“It's been an awful couple of games that we've had a couple of results but as I said, these are the moments you want to play football for, going into European ties and making the fans happy by giving performances that you can be proud of and results hopefully come with that. 

“As I said, we'll dissect what's happened today and we'll look at how we're going to go forward but also we know that there's an exciting challenge ahead come Thursday.”