Misery in Scotland as Hearts crash out

Hearts 0 Ferencvaros 1

A goal by Ferencvaros midfielder Denes Rosa after 30 minutes helped send Scotland’s sole European survivors Hearts crashing out of the UEFA Cup in their Group A clash at Murrayfield.

Basle beat Feyenoord 1-0 in Switzerland to effectively render the game in Edinburgh meaningless but it was still a disappointing night for the 26,182 fans who turned out.

The Scottish side had the better of the first half but were caught by a sucker punch on the half-hour mark when Rosa latched on to a Peter Lipcsei pass before scoring past Craig Gordon from close range at the third attempt.

After the break, the home side never really looked like hauling the goal back and in the end, Scotland were once again left without a post-Christmas representative in a European competition.

Hearts dominated the early play and in the 10th minute a quick Mark de Vries throw-in on the right released the alert Paul Hartley and the Jambos midfielder’s angled drive from 16 yards forced a good save from the Hungarian keeper Lajos Szucs at his near post.

Paul Hartley did have the ball in the net in the 14th minute but the goal was chalked off for a handball by the former Hibs player just inside the visitors’ box.

Ferencvaros, tenacious in defence but patient in attack, broke impressively up the other end of the park soon after and only a glaring miss from striker Daniel Tozser from 12 yards out.

Jambos’ talismanic striker de Vries almost provided a much-needed spark in the 26th minute when his turn and shot from 25 yards had Szucs stooping low to save.

But on the half-hour the home side were stunned when they conceded a goal.

Ferencvaros midfielder Peter Lipcsei split the Hearts rearguard with a through ball which found team-mate Denes Rosa unmarked inside the penalty area.

The Hungarian playmaker took two attempts to beat valiant Jambos keeper Craig Gordon from close range but eventually tucked the ball away from around eight yards out.

Hearts fought back and moments later Stewart had an angled drive from the right hand side of the Ferencvaros penalty area which skimmed the bar.

It was Ferencvaros who had the first effort on goal after the break when, after just two minutes, Rosa had an angled drive from 20 yards easily saved by Gordon as the Hearts defence looked less than solid.

In the 51st minute Stewart had a low drive from 20 yards well saved by Szucs before the visitors’ defender Gabor Gyepes scooped the ball away for a corner with Weir waiting to pounce.

With news filtering through from Switzerland that Basle were beating Feyenoord a gloom soon descended around Murrayfield.

In the 65th minute, as the increasingly nervy home side lost concentration, Gordon had to move sharply off his line to prevent Ferencvaros defender Dragan Vukmir from latching on to a poor back header from Alan Maybury.

In the 66th minute Ferencvaros coach Csaba Laszlo was sent to the stand by referee Levan Paniashvili after something appeared to be said to the fourth official.

The Hungarians came close to making it 2-0 in the 75th minute when substitute striker Thomas Sowumni, on earlier for Marek Penska, crashed a close-range header off the top of the bar and over.

In the closing stages the home side threw everything they had but only succeeded in leaving gaps at the back which Ferencvaros almost exploited on several occasions.