Red rage for Hearts in Greece

AEK Athens 3
Hearts 0
(AEK win 5-1 on aggregate)

THERE may have been an air of inevitability about the outcome of this match, but the pain will have been magnified tenfold by the controversial manner in which Hearts Champions League dreams crumbled in Athens last night.

The stakes could not have been higher, a place in the lucrative group stages of the competition on offer, but any hopes they had of joining that elite band were dashed by the decision of Russian referee Yuri Baskatov to yellow card Julien Brellier for failing to remove a diamond stud earring.

The fact that he received a second booking just five minutes later effectively extinguished Hearts' chances and, when he was joined in the dressing room by team-mate Neil McCann with an hour gone after a two-footed challenge on Vladimir Ivic, it was game over.

Down to nine men though, the Tynecastle players deserve credit for the way in which they refused to give up without a damn good fight, although Brellier was clearly unhappy with the way events had unfolded, admitting: "I don't feel so good right now. The referee did not say anything to me before the game about my earring but I still got booked for wearing one."

McCann was also furious with the referee's decisions including the one that saw him watch the final half hour of the game on television in the dressing room with Brellier. He said: "It's farcical that Julien was booked simply for wearing an earring, especially when we noticed that Julio Cesar was wearing a ring. If the referee was applying the same principles then he should have sent him off too because he was booked later in the game.

"There were a few strange decisions, my own red card came after I lost possession and their boy took a heavy touch on the ball so I saw it as a 50-50 challenge. I think that at the worst it should have been a yellow card."

The wounds from their late 2-1 defeat at Murrayfield a fortnight ago are still raw and the Greeks made sure they rubbed salt into them before kick-off when they showed highlights of that match on the big screen inside the Olympic Stadium, each goal greeted with a huge roar from the partisan crowd, some of whom had been in the ground two hours before the kick-off.

The AEK supporters have a fierce reputation and they gave the Hearts players a preview of the reception they were to receive at the start of the match when they were jeered on to the pitch for their warm-up.

That in itself may have been predictable, but surely no one would have foreseen the way in which Hearts coach Valdas Ivanauskas shuffled his pack, handing young Jamie Mole a start and leaving Calum Elliot who had been nursing an illness with a place on the bench beside Edgaras Jankauskas, while Paul Hartley was restored to his familiar role in the middle of the park.

Cesar had been one of AEK's main threats at Murrayfield and looked set to continue in that vein in the opening minutes when he hared out to the left wing, cut into the box and was hauled back by Robbie Neilson. It was almost a carbon copy of the right-back's foul on Lee Martin at Ibrox and it gave AEK an early chance to test Craig Gordon. It was Cesar himself who whipped the free kick in, but in the end Gordon wasn't needed as the ball was cut out by Hartley in the middle of the box and cleared from danger.

Hartley looked as though he had never been away and his next trick was to rob Emerson in the middle of the park before picking out Mole, who had also enjoyed an impressive opening to the match. The youngster teed up Mikoliunas on the edge of the six yard box but his shot simply cannoned off a defender and rebounded to Hartley who was on the 18-yard line but Greek keeper Dionisis Chiotis was left with a comfortable save.

Mole had a chance to make himself an instant hero when Deividas Cesnauskis fed the ball into his path in the box leaving him virtually facing an open goal but his header was weak and that gave Nikos Georgeas just enough time to get back and clear his lines. An even better chance was to come Hearts' way just before the half-hour when McCann picked up from Neilson and whipped the ball deep to the back post but it was to be passed up again, Hartley diverting the shot past the keeper's right hand post.

Just minutes later though Hearts' plans were in tatters when Brellier was sent off after leading with his elbow in a challenge with Ivic. It was a bizarre series of events and even the second yellow looked harsh.

Ivanauskas was furious with the decision and his mood hadn't improved any by the half-time whistle when he remonstrated with the referee, complaining that Cesar had worn a ring throughout the whole of the first half.

If Brellier's dismissal had been the beginning of the end for Hearts, McCann's sending off for a two-footed challenge on the same player simply hammered the final nail into the coffin.

Their hosts were then handed the opening goal on a plate when Cesnauskis clipped the heels of Vasilis Lakis a couple of yards from the goal-line and Cesar, who had been so impressive over the two legs, slotted home the penalty to Gordon's right as the big keeper dived the other way.

Flares crackled all round the Olympic Stadium in celebration and the smoke had only just started to settle when AEK made it 2-0, this time a cross from the left from Daniel Tozser was met by Nikos Liberopoulos and his header sailed into the net.

They had held out for so long but with their fate now sealed Hearts lost a third with just five minutes left and it was that man Cesar who rounded off the scoring when he slotted home almost from the penalty spot again.

AEK manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer refused to become embroiled in the row over Brellier's sending off and insisted his side were deserving winners. He said: "It's not my job to check whether my players are wearing earrings or rings.

"My job is only football and over the two legs we were the better side."

Taken from the Scotsman