A tireless performance, a four-hour coach journey from Edinburgh to Manchester and an early-morning flight to Malta inevitably took their toll on the Birkirkara players but nothing was going to wipe away their beaming smiles after a momentous night in the history of their club and Maltese football in general.

On Thursday, Birkirkara scaled unprecedented heights after a 2-1 victory at Scottish club Hearts propelled them into the third qualifying round of the Europa League, the first time a Maltese club has advanced so far in a UEFA competition.

Walking behind captain Gareth Sciberras, the exhausted but elated Birkirkara players returned home to a warm welcome yesterday morning.

“First and foremost, we believed in ourselves,” Sciberras told the Times of Malta.

“In the first leg (0-0), the most important thing was to stay in the tie and after seeing that we had given a creditable performance at home, we headed to Scotland believing that we still had a chance.

“The unity within this team showed in our collective effort as everyone produced a superb performance and we managed to get this historic result.”

Second-half goals from Croatian defender Christian Bubalovic and the rejuvenated Edward Herrera completed a remarkable win for Birkirkara who hit back after weathering a first-half storm with goalkeeper Miroslav Kopric embodying their defiance with a crucial save from Prince Buaben’s penalty in the 35th minute.

Striker Conor Sammon gave Hearts a glimmer of hope when pulling one back with 16 minutes left but Birkirkara held their nerve to stifle the hosts’ desperate efforts to get back into contention.

Sciberras hailed Kopric’s penalty save as the turning point.

“When they had the penalty, you think that it’s going to be an uphill struggle after that but our goalkeeper made an excellent save,” Sciberras said.

“In these four games, Kopric has been a key element for us.

“Our first goal came at the best possible time as it also helped to knock Hearts off their stride and enabled us to be more compact.”

Russian side Krasnodar await Birkirkara in the next round with the first leg at the Hibernians Stadium next Thursday at 19.30.

“We’re going to play against a very strong team,” Sciberras said of Krasnodar.

“They (coaching staff) have already started to give us some information about them and we know that we’re facing a high-level team. That said, we’re going into this match knowing that we have nothing to lose.

“This is a great experience. We hope to turn in another good performance which does credit to our club and Maltese football.”

At this time last year, Birkirkara were in a state of euphoria after pulling off a shock 1-0 win over West Ham United at the National Stadium before going out of the Europa League on penalties.

On the back of their eye-catching showings last summer, the Stripes, then under the charge of Italian Giovanni Tedesco, were installed among the favourites to win the Premier League title but their domestic campaign was an anti-climax.

In December, Tedesco was shown the exit door to be replaced by Croatian Drazen Besek who had to overhaul the squad in January.

Birkirkara eventually finished third in the league after a late flourish and were eliminated in the semi-finals of the FA Trophy but Besek has clearly steered the team back on track.

Their amazing progress to the third round of this season’s Europa League will inevitably raise the level of expectation but Sciberras is confident that Birkirkara are now better-prepared to avoid a repeat of last season’s meltdown.

“I think we have learnt from our mistakes,” the Malta midfielder said.

“Even yesterday (Thursday), in the dressing room, coach Besek told us that this is the start of a long road and our work is just beginning.

“I can’t say that there is euphoria but we had some celebrations because everybody is happy. We have other objectives at home... we’ll go step by step.”

Dream come true

What made Birkirkara’s achievement more special from a local perspective was that six of Besek’s first 11 on Thursday are Maltese players.

One of them, left-back Joseph Zerafa, was lost for words as he tried to express his feelings.

“This is something that shows that Maltese football, with its ups and downs, is making progress,” Zerafa said.

“As for the emotions we are experiencing right now, you have to be in our boots to know the feeling. We don’t know what’s going on around us, it’s like living in a dream.

“Everyone knows the level of the Scottish league and Hearts. Those who saw the game didn’t expect us to come out with that result.

“But we had a plan and it worked 100 per cent. Obviously, there was the turning point of the penalty save which gave us an enormous boost at that particular stage of the match.

“In the second half, we were determined to punish them and we managed to do it twice.

“We stayed compact and the result is what it is.”

Zerafa, one of the most cheerful characters in the Birkirkara and Malta dressing rooms, joked when asked to describe how the team celebrated their win over Hearts.

“We didn’t celebrate because we are professionals,” he noted with a wry smile.

“No, in the dressing room… even the Scots were happy for us. We have done a lot of travelling, so we didn’t really have chance to celebrate but, on the bus, you can imagine the mood, typical Maltese.

“Everyone joined in the fun and now we hope to continue like this, also in the domestic champion-ship.”

While acknowledging that Krasnodar, who finished fourth in the Russian Premier League last season, will be tough clients, Zerafa insisted that Birkirkara have no intention of resting on their laurels.

“Maybe, people are thinking that, now that we have reached this stage, our job is done but our aim is to give our 100 per cent and produce another good performance,” Zerafa stressed.

“They (Krasnodar) are a very strong team but we want to be involved in this type of games.”

Broken Hearts

The British media came up with some savvy headlines after Hearts’ shock elimination to Birkirkara in the Europa League. Below are some of the most eye-catching ones:

‘Hearts choke on Maltesers’ – Edinburgh Evening News

‘Hearts dumped out of Europe after dismal defeat to Maltese outfit at Tynecastle’ – The Herald

‘Jambos go out after shock defeat at home’ – The Scotsman