Hearts Secure European Football With Comeback Win
Heart of Midlothian secured a place in European competition next season with a comeback win against Livingston in the final game before the Scottish Premiership’s mid-year split.
The Macklin Motors-backed side were already odds-on to secure a European berth after a fine season on the pitch, but for a whole it looked like the bottom side in the division could spring a surprise at Tynecastle.
First up, an error from Craig Gordon in his first league start since 2022 allowed Stephen Kelly to shoot into an empty net and ten minutes later, the same player drove the ball into the corner from outside the box to make it 2-0 to the visitors.
Hearts woke from their slumber to get a goal back just before the half-hour mark, with Lawrence Shankland crossing for Jorge Grant to stab the ball home and within three minutes, the game was level; Shankland again providing the cross and Yutaro Oda smashing a shot into the net.
More joy down the left-hand side saw Shankland release Alex Cochrane down the wing and his cross was turned home by Cammy Devlin.
Having turned a two goal deficit into a one goal lead within the space of eleven minutes, Hearts then grabbed a fourth before half-time when Oda raced onto a short backpass and was felled in the box by Shamal George.
Shankland smashed home the resultant penalty and whilst that was the end of the goals, there was still drama in the second half when Livingston’s Tete Yengi was sent off in farcical fashion just before the hour mark.
Having already been booked, Yengi reacted in angry fashion to being substituted and as he took his place on the bench, was shown a second yellow card and dismissed despite having already left the pitch.
Whilst the post-split fixtures only start at the end of the month, Hearts return to action this weekend with the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers.
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