Hearts travel to Kilmarnock on Sunday (kick-off 15.00) in the William Hill Premiership looking to shake off their Euro blues after suffering their third straight defeat in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Yes, Copenhagen were awarded a controversial penalty kick in the second-half which put the Conference League clash out of sight for the Jambos at 2-0, but the Tynecastle team failed to retain possession and lacked punch up-front against a quality outfit who dominated.
Amin Chiakha after 48 minutes and a Kevin Diks penalty in 78 minutes secured the deserved win for the Danish side in front of a crowd of 24,207, including around 3,000 fans from Scotland.
Hearts hopes now rest on Thursday’s final league-stage match against Moldovan combine, Petrocub, at Tynecastle (20.00) and they lost 1-0 at home to Real Betis in the same competition on Thursday.
Neil Critchley has a big job to prepare his side for the trip to Kilmarnock and the head coach was frustrated at the penalty award but admitted to Hearts TV: “It was a very difficult game for us.
“They proved that this was our toughest game. They were very good opposition. They are good at playing around you and through you.
“We tried to take the game to them and we kept going to the end. At 1-0 you are still in the game. They were the better team and deserved to win but a poor decision has taken away a chance for us to have a real go at the end of the game.
“You have to hold your hands up sometimes and say the better team won. They played the game at a different level. They had enough answers.”
Craig Gordon, Hearts’ goalkeeper, told BBC Sport Scotland he was frustrated at the penalty award but stressed: “We have to take it one game at a time and we’ll head down to Kilmarnock trying to win the game and then look forward to an all-of-nothing game (against Petrocub) at Tynecastle next Thursday.”
Frankie Kent was helped off the pitch in the first half forcing Hearts to reshuffle their back division and Critchley said he was feeling his quad but it was too early to say how bad the injury is.
Looking at the Kilmarnock fixture, Critchley admitted: “They will be rubbing their hands together that we played on Thursday, but it is always a tough place to go to. We can’t dwell on this game. Kilmarnock is the game and we have to be ready.”
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