Hearts and SK Rapid played out an entertaining 2-2 UEFA Conference League Play-off first leg draw, setting up a winner-takes-all clash in Vienna next week.
The visitors took a first half lead through Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao’s header, but were pegged back by James McPake’s second-half effort before James Wilson put the Jambos into the lead with a stunning strike, only for Rapid to restore parity through Nikolaus Wurmbrand.
Head Coach Wouter Vrancken made six changes from the team that swept aside Inverness CT last week. In came Jordi Altena, Claudio Braga, Landry Kabore, Josh McPake, Oisin McEntee and out went Christian Borchgrevink, Sabri Guendouz, Tomas Magnusson, Sabah Kerjota, Rogers Mato and Amadou Ba-Sy.
Beau Reus was called into action eight minutes in when Tonni Adamsen threaded Matthias Seidl into the box, but one-on-one the big stopper came off best, making a smart block to deny a certain goal.
Reus came to the rescue again four minutes later, flinging himself to his left to claw Bendeguz Bolla’s volley away from the goalline.
The Jambos then settled into the game, producing some neat passing moves to get up the park but were too often guilty of gifting possession to the opposition, with once such instance after 27 minutes giving Adamsen sight of goal, but his shot from distance was smothered by Reus.
And it was the visitors who would take the lead on the half hour mark when the unmarked Raux-Yao met a cross into the box to guide a header past Reud and into the corner of the net.
Rapid keeper Niklas Hedl was given his first test 37 minutes in. Some powerful running out of defence from Jamie McCart saw the ball go out to McPake on the left, he danced away from two green shirts before cutting inside and pinging one from 25-yards, but his low drive was saved at the near post.
Moments later Braga tried his luck from outside the box but could only send his powerful effort wide of Hedl’s right-hand post.
Renaud was next to sting the palms of Hedl. With one minute of the half remaining, he took the ball and dug one from 25-yards out, but it was straight at the keeper.
The boys in maroon started the second half quickly, with Braga doing well to get the ball out from under his feet to get a shot away, which Hudl pushed around the post.
Soon after, McPake showed his trademark skill to cut inside along the length of the box to curl an effort over the target.
Rapid showed their ability to move the ball around at speed with short, sharp passing at the edge of the Hearts box, culminating in Seidl dragging a shot wide.
Hearts’ positivity paid off on 52 minutes. McPake, so dangerous on the left, got down the flank before driving into the box and pulling the trigger, watching his shot take a deflection off of Raux-Yao and into the back of the net to make it 1-1.
By this point Tynecastle was electric, and the Jambos were feeding off the atmosphere to ramp up the pressure. McEntee wasn’t far away with a backwards header, but then the roof erupted.
Substitute James Wilson took possession and from all of 30-yards out, hit and unstoppable effort, that dipped and swerved, over Hedl and into the roof of the net. Simply sensational.
Rapid provided a reminder of how dangerous they could be on 75 minutes when Nenan Cvetkovic lifted a first-time volley over the bar following a well-worked corner routine.
A scrappy goal got the visitors back on level terms with 11 minutes remaining, with substitute Wurmbrand’s close range shot taking a deflection off a Hearts player’s leg to divert the ball into the net.
A pulsating night under the Tynecastle lights, with next Wednesday’s tie in Vienna now a straight shootout for a place in the competition’s League Phase.
Hearts: Reus, McCart, McEntee, Miller, Braga, Kabore (Wilson, 57’), Renaud, McPake (Mato, 73’), Spittal ©, Findlay, Altena.
Subs: Fulton, Wright, Borchgrevink, Guendouz, Magnusson, Kamson-Kamara, Kerjota, Ba-Sy.
SK Rapid: Hedl, Raux-Yao, Adamsen (Wurmbrand, 76’), Kara, Dahl (Bajlicz, 76’), Seidl ©, Y. Demir (Tilio, 83’), Amane (Haidara, 93’), Horn, Cvetkovic, Bolla.
Subs: Gartlet, Goschl, Roka, Scahub, Auer, Oswald, Groller, F.Demir.
