Hearts 3 Sporting Braga 1

Goals from Andy Webster, Paul Hartley and Patrick Kisnorbo put the Jambos in a great position ahead of the first round second leg in Portugal at the end of the month.

The only down side of the evening was when Braga pulled a goal back through Paulo Sergio but Hearts will be hopeful of extending their run in Europe after an impressive display.

Hearts were in the bizarre position of playing a home European tie at a stadium they had never played at before because their Tynecastle home does not meet UEFA requirements.

That meant a ghostly atmosphere was expected at the 67,500-capacity Murrayfield stadium as the home of Scottish Rugby hosted its first ever competitive football match and a planned boycott over chief executive Chris Robinson's decision to sell Tynecastle meant an even smaller crowd was expected.

In the end, around 18,769 supporters braved the wind and rain to watch the first leg of this UEFA Cup tie, with the east stand packed and a sizeable number of supporters taking up the south stand.

The kick-off was held up slightly to sort the net on the goal which Braga would be shooting towards in the first half but - despite holding Porto to a draw at the weekend - there was little action in that third of the pitch in the first half.

Hearts tried to pile the pressure on their Portuguese visitors straight away and Jamie McAllister went close after just two minutes when he unleashed an impressive looking drive across the face of goal and just past the post from the edge of the 18-yard box.

It was clear that Hearts were the stronger team but they were making hard work of finding the back of the net.

They should have have been ahead when Mark de Vries set up a great chance for Phil Stamp and the midfielder was stunned when goalkeeper Paulo Santos managed to claw the volley clear of the goal. McAllister raced in for the rebound only to fire well over the crossbar.

Braga had failed to show much throughout the first half but they almost snatched the lead when a poor header out from Webster was picked up by Wender and he played the ball out to substitute Jamie Junior - on the pitch for less than a minute - but a great save from Craig Gordon kept the scoreline level.

Hearts had looked the side most likely to open the scoring and they finally found the back of the net with 51 minutes on the clock.

Joe Hamill spotted de Vries unmarked at the far post and the big striker nodded into the path of Webster who bulleted the header home from inside the six yard box, leaving the Braga goalkeeper helpless.

Clearly boosted by the opener, Hearts should have extended their lead a few minutes later.

This time de Vries threaded the ball into the path of Stamp and he unleashed a thunderous shot from 25 yards which crashed off the crossbar before falling harmlessly over.

Hearts' hard work was beginning to pay off when they doubled their advantage after 62 minutes.

Hartley won possession in the middle before playing the ball out to Robbie Neilson out on the right flank and racing into the box.

Neilson dutifully supplied the cross and the end result was a superb volley from Hartley to grab Hearts' second goal of the night.

Their joy was short-lived when Braga pulled a goal back a minute later.

Junior had looked dangerous since being thrown into the action late in the first half and it was his free-kick which was met by Paulo Sergio who sent the header past Gordon.

Hearts looked shaken by the goal and that led to careless passing which resulted in Braga's best period of domination but they still struggled to create much in the way of clear-cut chances.

With 10 minutes remaining, Hearts head coach Craig Levein decided to introduce Dennis Wyness to the game and that meant that Stamp had to make way before Hamill was replaced by Neil MacFarlane a couple of minutes later.

Wyness should have found the net as the game moved into injury time but it was Kisnorbo who grabbed the glory when he bulleted home Hearts' third goal with almost the last kick from a Hartley corner.

Teams

Hearts Gordon, Neilson, Pressley, Webster, Maybury, Hamill (MacFarlane 81), Kisnorbo, Hartley, Stamp (Wyness 79), McAllister, de Vries.

Subs Not Used: Moilanen, Janczyk, Sloan, Berra, Stewart.

Booked: Kisnorbo, Gordon.

Goals: Webster 52, Hartley 62, Kisnorbo 90.

Braga Paulo Santos, Abel, Paulo Jorge, Nunes, Jorge Luiz, Luis Loureiro, Vandinho, Kenedy, Paulo Sergio (Cesinha 75), Baha (Jaime 37), Wender.

Subs Not Used: Cicero, Mauricio, Joao Tomas, Marco, Barroso.

Booked: Nunes.

Goals: Paulo Sergio 65.

Taken from sportinglife.com