Schalke outwit Hearts' robust approach

STUART BATHGATE
AT MURRAYFIELD

Hearts 0
Schalke 04 1 Lincoln (73)

Referee: N Ivanov (Russia). Attendance: 27,272

HEARTS’ hopes of qualifying for the last 32 of the UEFA Cup were dealt a potentially fatal blow last night when an unstoppable strike from Lincoln consigned them to their second straight defeat in Group A. An already tough task was made even worse by the sending-off of Patrick Kisnorbo shortly after the restart, and a wider margin of victory would not have flattered Schalke 04.

The Edinburgh team’s only hope now is to win their remaining matches against Basel and Ferencvaros, and rely on that six-point total to be enough to put them through. Even if Robbie Neilson had grabbed a late equaliser after being set up by the substitute Graham Weir instead of curling the ball wide, their chances of making it into the top three of the five-team group would still have been slight.

It was not, then, the ideal start to John Robertson’s reign as Hearts manager, nor the kind of match that the majority of the crowd - up roughly 50 per cent from the Braga match in the last round - had come hoping to see. Neither team were close to their best form, but the difference was that, while Schalke played within themselves yet still had enough to win, Hearts’ below-par performance allowed the Germans to dominate long stretches of the game.

The fussiness of the referee, who at times appeared to regard any physical contact as contrary to the laws of the game, knocked Hearts off their stride. Yet, having learned that their customary robustness would be punished, they failed to adapt, perhaps realising that any attempt to take on the Germans at their own game would be doomed to failure.

Another drawback, paradoxically, was the inability of Hearts’ greatest physical threat, Mark de Vries, to take part from the start. Having been out for weeks with a poisoned toe, the Dutchman was never going to be fit enough to last the whole 90 minutes, and so Kevin McKenna partnered Ramon Pereira up front, as he had done in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Dundee. De Vries replaced Neil Janczyk on the bench as the only change from the weekend, when Peter Houston, now Craig Levein’s assistant coach at Leicester City, had taken charge of the team.

Levein and Houston had made good on their promise to return to Edinburgh from Leicester for this match, hoping to see their former club do better than in the first group match, which they lost to Feyenoord. It was the Germans who played with greater urgency in the opening exchanges, however, and with only three minutes on the clock, Ailton picked up a loose ball 25 yards out and sent in a speculative chip. The effort was a foot or two too high to trouble Craig Gordon in the Hearts goal, but was still the first ominous hint that the German team contained the talent to make chances out of nothing.

After creating very little for the first 20 minutes, Hearts were then presented with a sudden opportunity which with a little more luck would have resulted in the opening goal. A loose headed clearance of a Hearts cross found Jamie McAllister unmarked on the edge of the box. The former Livingston player’s low shot was cleared off the line into the path of Paul Hartley, but the midfielder could not halt his run sufficiently to gain control of the ball, which bounced off his legs and rolled towards the byeline. Hartley regained possession before the ball was out, but the Schalke defence had got back in numbers and his cut back was mopped up.

Moments earlier Kisnorbo had been shown the yellow card after exchanging words with one of the assistant referees, and several players came close to following the Australian into the Russian referee’s book as the match became tetchier in nature. Hearts were finding it relatively easy to get high balls up towards Kevin McKenna, but were frustrated by the Germans’ ability to cut out any knockdowns from the Canadian.

Hearts were also becoming irked by the referee’s willingness to award free kicks for minimal physical contact. Several Schalke players made matters worse by falling over, and in the 42nd minute a theatrical reaction by Hamit Altinop to a Robbie Neilson tackle got the Hearts player booked. Barely 30 seconds later, Ramon Pereira went down just inside the visitors’ box, but this time the referee took no action. It would have been a soft penalty, yet it was understandable that Hearts should feel themselves unjustly treated by Ivanov’s refusal to give it.

That sense of injustice was deepened two minutes after the restart, when Hearts had another penalty claim denied after Kisnorbo went down in a challenge with Niels Oude-Kamphuis. The referee decided the Australian’s dive merited a second yellow card, and the home side were down to ten men.

Robertson responded by bringing on Neil MacFarlane to take over Kisnorbo’s holding role, with Pereira being the player sacrificed and McKenna left as the sole striker. Hearts had Craig Gordon to thank for keeping the score blank throughout a period of sustained Schalke pressure, and then in a rare foray into the opposition box Joe Hamill was inches away from connecting with a long throw from Neilson.

Hartley was then booked for a needless trip on Lincoln, before, with 24 minutes left, De Vries made his expected entrance in place of McKenna. Lincoln had done little in the match, but with just over quarter of an hour left he made the decisive contribution with a fierce shot which left Gordon no chance. It was reminiscent of Bordeaux’s first in their win at Tynecastle last year, and had just as deflating an effect.

Robertson will find it hard indeed to breathe new life into his team’s European campaign, with the match in Switzerland later this month now one Hearts must win to have any chance of going through as one of the group’s top three teams.

Hearts: Gordon, Neilson, Webster, Pressley, Maybury, McAllister, Kisnorbo, Hartley, Hamill (Weir 77), McKenna (De Vries 66), Pereira (MacFarlane 51). Subs not used: Moilanen, Wyness, Berra, Stewart.

Schalke 04: Rost, Poulsen, Bordon, Altintop (Kobiashvili 61), Ailton, Lincoln, Sand (Hanke 88), Asamoah (Varela 61), Waldoch, Oude-Kamphuis, Pander. Subs not used: Heimeroth, Klasener, Rodriguez, Vermant.

Taken from the Scotsman