Hearts were sunk by two late goals to lose 2-1 against Aberdeen.
Oisin McEntee’s first-half striker had the Jambos heading towards a Pittodrie victory, but stoppage time Lewis Mayo and Kevin Nisbet goals completely an unlikely comeback for the Dons.
Head Coach Wouter Vrancken made five changes to the side that lost to Sturm Graz in midweek. Beau Reus made his Hearts debut following the departure of Alex Schwlow. Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Stephen Kingsley missed out through injury with Stuart Findlay coming into the defence and Laurent Mendy – another debutant – slotting into midfield. Further forward Sabah Kerjota and Amadou Ba-Sy were handed starts, while Sabri Guendouz and Alexandros Kyziridis moved to the bench.
The opening stages saw a bit of back and forth, with both sides enjoying periods of possession without really creating any openings, aside from one great clearance from Reus who rushed off his line to get on the end of Toyosi Olusanya’s defence-splitting pass ahead of Kevin Nisbet.
The first real opportunity of the game came 27 minutes in. Nisbet got on the end of an Aberdeen corner but flashed his header narrowly wide of Reus’ left-hand post.
The Jambos went up the park and had their first shot at goal a minute later. Blair Spittal collected a loose ball before taking aim from 25-yards out, only to fire straight at Marius Miller in the Dons’ goal.
It was 1-0 after 35 minutes and it was Hearts who drew first blood. Ba-Sy showed great skill to turn his man inside the box before middling, with Spittal’s shot blocked into the path of McEntee, who cooly stroked the ball into the bottom corner of the net from inside the six-yard box.
Claudio Braga went close to extending the Jam Tarts’ lead seven minutes into the restart. Calvin Miller showed some good skill to get down the left before firing the ball to the back post but the Portuguese forward was at full stretch to knock it past the post.
Aberdeen tested Reus for the first time after 70 minutes following some loose Hearts defending. Chris Cadden rifled a shot from just inside the box but the big Dutchman was equal to it, pushing the ball away to his left.
Substitute Landry Kabore forced Muller into a save of his own up the other end, sending a powerhouse effort on target that the keeper did well to turn over the bar.
With the Jambos seemingly in control, disaster struck in the final few moments. On 90 minutes, Mayo bundled home a Nisbet cross then, soon after, Findlay was judged to have fouled Olusanya inside the box, for which he received a red card for his troubles, and Nisbet made no mistake from the spot as Hearts snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Aberdeen: Müller, Yogane, Lyons, Nisbet ©️, Olusanya, Mayo, Guinness-Walker (Molloy, 83’), Ronan (Smith, 72’), Happe, Cadden (Mouloua, 72’), Aremu (Armstrong, 72’)
Subs: Mitov, Briedl, Lobban, Milne, Fasanya
Hearts: Reus, McEntee, Miller, Braga, Spittal (Magnusson, 80’), Findlay, Milne ©️, Altena, Kerjota (Guendouz, 74’), Ba-Sy (Kabore, 60’), Mendy (McCart, 74’)
Subs: Clark, McPake, Wilson, Mato, Kyziridis
