Hearts produced a spirited show however had been unable to keep up their good begin within the Convention League as they went down 2-0 to Bundesliga facet Heidenheim at Tynecastle.
The Edinburgh facet, buoyed by successful their opening two matches within the competitors, appeared to have their German guests rattled as they created a number of possibilities within the first half.
However they had been made to rue their failure to strike whereas on prime as Heidenheim as a substitute made it three victories out of three courtesy of second-half headers from Sirlord Conteh and substitute Jan Schoppner.
Regardless of this setback, the Scottish Premiership facet stay within the prime half of the Convention League desk forward of their journey to Cercle Brugge in three weeks.
Hearts boss Neil Critchley made two modifications to the group that began Saturday’s league win over St Johnstone as Adam Forrester and Stephen Kingsley changed Daniel Oyegoke and Kye Rowles.
Heidenheim – who had risen from the seventh tier of German soccer to the Bundesliga – had been backed by greater than 700 travelling supporters for what was solely their third away fixture in Europe and their first-ever match within the UK.
Hearts, who had gained three of their earlier 4 conferences with German opposition at Tynecastle, made a robust begin of their quest to turn into the second Scottish group to beat a Bundesliga facet this week after Celtic’s Champions League conquer RB Leipzig.
Lawrence Shankland had a fantastic probability to open the scoring within the third minute when the ball broke kindly into his path on the sting of the field after James Penrice charged down Lennard Maloney, however the captain fired his shot towards the legs of Kevin Muller.
Two second-half headers condemned Hearts to defeat
The Heidenheim goalkeeper made one other save to disclaim Shankland from a decent angle 5 minutes later after some incisive play by Yan Dhanda and Blair Spittal launched him within the field.
Frankie Kent then despatched a free header vast from a Spittal nook on the again submit earlier than Penrice shot over after Alan Forrest’s cross from the appropriate broke to him simply contained in the field.
Spittal and Forrest each threatened in fast succession with driving runs in direction of purpose as Hearts continued to look the likelier facet to interrupt the impasse.
Having been firmly on prime by way of possibilities created, the hosts had a serious let-off two minutes earlier than the break when Malachi Boateng obtained again to hook the ball off the road from Maloney’s looping header after goalkeeper Craig Gordon – on his three hundredth look for the Jambos – had launched himself out of his six-yard field to punch a nook kick clear.
Hearts struggled to regain the higher hand within the early levels of the second half they usually fell behind within the 57th minute after sub Mathias Honsak darted down the left and crossed for Conteh who glanced residence a close-range header on the close to submit.
The hosts stored themselves within the recreation till the 89th minute when Schoppner powered residence a header from Omar Haktab Traore’s cross to seal victory for the Germans and set them up properly for his or her residence match towards Chelsea in three weeks.
