Hearts will play in the UEFA Conference League this season after being edged out 1-0 by Plzen in the second leg of our Europa League play-off.
Lukas Cerv’s second half strike was enough to end the tie at 2-0 on aggregate, with the Jambos to discover their opponents in the Conference League tomorrow afternoon in the draw in Switzerland.
The Jambos registered the first chance of the evening after five minutes after some cute play from Kenneth Vargas to turn the ball over to Gerald Taylor, whose shot rebounded into the path of Cammy Devlin, with his side footed effort going over the crossbar.
In a first half marked by determined play from both sides, chances were few and far between in those opening exchanges. Pavel Sulc cut in off the left and curled an effort towards goal in Plzen’s first attempt, but it was comfortably wide of Craig Gordon’s goal.
Just before the half hour mark, Kenneth Vargas did ever so well to head the ball across goal to a waiting Liam Boyce, but couldn’t quite steer it into the path of the Northern Irishman.
The biggest moment came on the cusp of half-time as Gerald Taylor made a vital goal-saving block to turn a Daniel Vasulin effort behind after a lethal break up the park on the counter-attack from Plzen.
Craig Gordon maintained his fine performances between the sticks of late as he rushed out to produce a world class save from Vasulin at point blank range.
Hearts were left kicking the turf in frustration after 72 minutes when Gerald Taylor’s howitzer at Tvdron was spilled back into play with Stephen Kingsley’s second attempt forcing another save from the Czech keeper.
Sadly, the game was wrapped up a minute later when Lukas Cerv dispatched a low drive past Gordon to send the Czechs through.
A difficult night at Tynecastle, but the European adventure isn’t quite over yet as we learn our Conference League opponents tomorrow.
Hearts: Gordon ©, Kent, Kingsley, Grant (Spittal 66’), Devlin (Forrest 81’), Rowles, Boateng, Boyce (Dhanda 71’), Penrice (Oda 66’), Vargas (Wilson 81’), Taylor
Subs: Clark, Halkett, Oyegoke, McKay, Oda, Spittal, Forrest, Dhanda, Wilson, Pollock, Tait, Musa
Viktoria Plzeň: Tvrdoň, Cerv, Kopic, Sojka (Vydra 58’), Jemelka, Cadu, Kalvach ©, Havel, Šulc (Sloncik 90+2’), Dweh, Vašulín (Hejda 87’)
Subs: Jedlička, Wiegele-Hejda, Paluska, Séne, Ricardinho, Vydra, Mosquera, Panoš, Mika, Slončik, Jirka
