Hearts produced a spirited display but were unable to maintain their perfect start in the Conference League as they went down 2-0 to Bundesliga side Heidenheim at Tynecastle.
The Edinburgh side, buoyed by winning their opening two matches in the competition, appeared to have their German visitors rattled as they created a host of chances in the first half.
But they were made to rue their failure to strike while on top as Heidenheim instead made it three victories out of three courtesy of second-half headers from Sirlord Conteh and substitute Jan Schoppner.
Despite this setback, the William Hill Premiership side remain in the top half of the Conference League table ahead of their trip to Cercle Brugge in three weeks.
Hearts boss Neil Critchley made two changes to the team that started Saturday’s league win over St Johnstone as Adam Forrester and Stephen Kingsley replaced Daniel Oyegoke and Kye Rowles.
Heidenheim – who had risen from the seventh tier of German football to the Bundesliga – were backed by more than 700 travelling supporters for what was only their third away fixture in Europe and their first-ever match in the UK.
Hearts, who had won three of their previous four meetings with German opposition at Tynecastle, made a strong start in their quest to become the second Scottish team to beat a Bundesliga side this week after Celtic’s Champions League triumph over RB Leipzig.
Lawrence Shankland had a great chance to open the scoring in the third minute when the ball broke kindly into his path on the edge of the box after James Penrice charged down Lennard Maloney, but the captain fired his shot against the legs of Kevin Muller.
The Heidenheim goalkeeper made another save to deny Shankland from a tight angle five minutes later after some incisive play by Yan Dhanda and Blair Spittal released him in the box.
Frankie Kent then sent a free header wide from a Spittal corner at the back post before Penrice shot over after Alan Forrest’s cross from the right broke to him just inside the box.
Spittal and Forrest both threatened in quick succession with driving runs towards goal as Hearts continued to look the likelier side to break the deadlock.
Having been firmly on top in terms of chances created, the hosts had a major let-off two minutes before the break when Malachi Boateng got back to hook the ball off the line from Maloney’s looping header after goalkeeper Craig Gordon – on his 300th appearance for the Jambos – had launched himself out of his six-yard box to punch a corner kick clear.
Hearts struggled to regain the upper hand in the early stages of the second half and they fell behind in the 57th minute after sub Mathias Honsak darted down the left and crossed for Conteh who glanced home a close-range header at the near post.
The hosts kept themselves in the game until the 89th minute when Schoppner powered home a header from Omar Haktab Traore’s cross to seal victory for the Germans and set them up nicely for their home match against Chelsea in three weeks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel