Ronaldinho sparkle warms record crowd

Instead, Barcelona played more incisively than they had done against Dundee United, and controlled the game pretty much from start to finish. Players of such artistry can be exciting, but they can also use their skill to close down a match, and once they were two goals up Barcelona ensured there would be no way back for their opponents.

Not that they should be blamed for doing so. They provided a fair amount of entertainment, particularly through Ronaldinho in the first half and teenagers Giovanni and Bojan after the break, but their visit to Scotland was also a serious part of their pre-season preparations: for all their extravagant skills, the Catalan team were never going to treat their mini-tour as the footballing equivalent of a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition.

It is no disgrace to lose to a team of such quality, and Hearts at least showed some enterprise during stages of the first half. They should in fact have gone 2-1 ahead ten minutes before the break when Michael Stewart put Audrius Ksanavicius through on goal, but the trialist's weak effort was easily gathered by Victor Valdes.

The Scottish side lost most of their cohesion after the break, when they ended up with an entirely different team, but the worrying thing for the home support was the lack of any viable shape to the side in the first half too. Stewart and Laryea Kingston played well enough in midfield, and could become an effective partnership in the SPL; but, with Kingston facing suspension from the opening weeks of the league, there is only so much Stewart can be expected to do on his own. He needs support, and it is not clear yet where that support is going to come from.

Hearts' rustiness looks especially glaring when contrasted with the pre-season progress made by Hibs, whom they play a week today in their first fixture of the new season. Stephen Frail, the assistant coach, implicitly acknowledged more team-shaping work was required when he said afterwards that they would look into the possibility of arranging another match this week.

Frail hopes to have his own position clarified this week by the club's owner, Vladimir Romanov. He believes he and Anatoly Korobochka, the interim head coach, work well together and deserve to have their roles confirmed. But the joker in the pack is Eduard Malofeev, the "advisor on sports matters to the board" whose brief spell in charge of the first team was markedly unsuccessful. Malofeev took training when the squad were in Germany and Austria, and appears to retain at least some of Romanov's trust. "He won't be back in a coach's role," Frail said, before adding that he was sure Malofeev would still "pop in" to the club every so often.

Going back to Saturday's match, the Edinburgh club obviously hope that some of those attracted to Murrayfield will decide to pop in to more Hearts matches from time to time. There were of course a lot of neutrals in the new record crowd for a Hearts home game of 57,857, but even by the most conservative of estimates the number of Hearts supporters was considerably greater than the 17,000 which is the current capacity of Tynecastle.

Away from such showpiece occasions as the visit of one of the world's greatest clubs, however, the obvious way to attract bigger crowds to Hearts matches is by having a successful product on the pitch. With several experienced players still on the injury list, Frail and Korobochka still have a lot to do to find a convincing line-up for the start of the SPL campaign.

Juho Makela, the Finnish striker, is one who should be considered for a regular start. Although beginning the game in a wide midfield berth, he looked sharper than Andrius Velicka, who was playing up front on his own.

It was Makela who brought Hearts back into the game when he scored from a corner after Barça's account had been opened by a Ronaldinho penalty - a debatable award by Dougie McDonald after Gianluca Zambrotta had gone down following a challenge by Ksanavicius. The Brazilian got a straightforward second with a header from a Sylvinho cross not long before half-time, then after five minutes of the second half Thierry Henry provided the pass from which Giovanni scored to ensure Barcelona's record in Scotland would be played two, won two.

Hearts: Gordon (Banks 75), Karipidis (R McGowan 84), Berra (Neilson 46), Zaliukas (Jonsson 68), Wallace (Elliot 58), Makela (Ivaskevicius 46), Tall (Pospisil 58), Kingston (Palazuelos 46), Stewart (Mikoliunas 46), Ksanavicius (McCann 46), Velicka (Beniusis 46).

Barcelona: Valdes (Jorquera 46), Thuram (Crosas 73), Presas, Toure (Thiago Motta 65), Zambrotta (Belletti 46), Ezquerro (Bojan 46), Xavi (Delgado 86), Iniesta (Deco 46), Sylvinho (Abidal 46), Eto'o (Henry 46), Ronaldinho (Giovanni 46).

Barça could return, says Rijkaard

BARCELONA coach Frank Rijkaard has declared the club's pre-season training camp a success and says he would love to bring the team back to Scotland.

The Catalan club spent the week based in St Andrews and flew home on Saturday night following their win over Hearts. They also played Dundee United at Tannadice last Thursday, winning 1-0.

On the prospect of a return to Scotland, Rijkaard said: "I wouldn't say we had a wonderful time if it wasn't true, but it is. I think that the players have had this experience, that we are welcome here and that we have the circumstances to work really well. Later on, you never know what's going to happen. If it's my decision, then, yeah - we have to come back up here."

Barcelona were comfortable winners at Murrayfield but Rijkaard paid tribute to Hearts. "I think they gave us a hard time, especially in the first half," he told Hearts News. "I think we controlled the game, though. But I think that we had good opposition, a good crowd, it was a nice atmosphere to play in, and so it was a good test case for us."

Barcelona begin the second stage of their pre-season on Thursday when they fly to the Far East for games in China, Japan and Hong Kong.

Taken from the Scotsman