Hearts win but players furious at Braga coach

Braga 2 Hearts 2 (Aggregate: 3-5)

The Portuguese side lost the first leg at Murrayfield 3-1 but boss Jesualdo Ferreira branded Hearts a bad team and insisted his side would progress to the group stages of the competition last night. Instead a 2-2 draw at the Estadio Municipal de Braga allowed Levein’s men to go through with a 5-3 aggregate win.

The Hearts boss said his players were so disgusted at the lack of respect shown by the Braga boss they asked Levein to go public with their anger.

Hearts were left reeling when Braga took the lead through Joao Tomas but a double from Mark de Vries ensured a smooth passage to the group stages.

BRAGA: Paulo Santos, Abel, Nem, Jorge Luiz, Paulo Sergio, Joao Tomas, Jaime, Kenedy, Wender, Vandinho, Marco.

HEARTS: Gordon, Maybury, Webster, Pressley, Kisnorbo, McAllister, Neilson, Stamp, Hartley, MacFarlane, de Vries.

Referee: Anton Stredak (Slovakia).