Hearts European adventures are over for this season after the Men in Maroon were dumped out of the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off by a strong PAOK side.
The Capital combine, 2-1 down from the first-leg, eventually lost 4-0 on the night but held the Greek side early on thanks to tight defence and the closest the home side came was when Glannis Konstantelias sent a header straight at Zander Clark.
Then Vieirinha cut inside and fired a rocket shot which smacked against the crossbar and rebounded to Baba Rahman who sent the follow-up straight at Clark.
The warnings, however, were there and Taison sent a free-kick into the far corner to give PAOK the lead after 16 minutes and seven minutes after that Brandon doubled the Greek’s advantage when he fired home from inside the penalty box.
Hearts did have chances and Alex Cochrane swung over a corner to the back post but Frankie Kent sent his header wide of the right-hand post.
By half-time three Hearts players were in the book, Toby Sibbick, skipper Lawrence Shankland (pictured) and Cammy Devlin, and they were up against it, 4-1 down on aggregate.
The Scots started the second-half brightly and Shankland fed Liam Boyce who sent the ball on to Kenneth Vargas who set-up Cochrane but he sent the ball over the bar from the edge of the box.
PAOK then saw Koulierakis booked for bringing down Vargas as Hearts attempted to get back into the tie but PAOK went further ahead minutes later when Konstantelias scored from close range.
Hearts rang the changes, Boyce being substituted by Kyosuke Tagawa and then the Jambos took off Shankland and Stephen Kingsley and sent on Alex Lowry and Aidan Denholm.
It failed to turn the tide and Taison claimed No 4 after 71 minutes, firing the ball wide of Clark.
More changes for Hearts with Odeluga Offiah and Andy Halliday replacing Nathaniel Atkinson and Devlin with eight minutes left and the visitors had a chance from a Lowry free-kick but Kent sent the ball into the opposition goalkeeper’s arms.
Three minutes of injury time were added but Hearts bowed out of Europe with a 4-0 scoreline against them in Greece.
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