A smart Fiorentina heart was outclassed in a Europa League defeat at Tynecastle that dealt a serious blow to their knockout hopes.
By the time of home defender Lewis Nelson’s straight red shortly after the break, the Italians were already two goals ahead in dominant displays by Rolando Mandragora and Christian Koveme.
Luka Jovic made up for several deficits with a late third to complete Hearts’ woes as Fiorentina moved Robbie Nelson’s men into second place with their first win in Group A.
And with upcoming trips to Florence and leaders Istanbul Basaksehir – who drew 0-0 away to Rigas FS – to come, the odds are firmly stacked against Hearts advancing to their first European group stage campaign in 18 years.
Fiorentina’s shaky form – one win in 10 matches – had given Hearts reason to believe in a famous European victory.
Those hopes were soon dashed in a nightmare start, Mandragora running unchallenged to curl a simple header past Craig Gordon from Alexa Terzic’s cross.
It was a sign of victory. Hearts sat deep and invited the pressure, which Fiorentina pelted into 11 first-half shots while enjoying 71 percent possession.
Hearts were in danger of being overrun with the Italians losing ground. Jovic – who cost Real Madrid three years ago for £50m – could have scored a hat-trick inside the opening half-hour, while defender Igor stepped forward and tipped a speeding drive wide.
The hosts were chasing the shadows and, just as they looked set to take it to the break one down, Koum acrobatically fired past Gordon after failing to clear the defence.
The only glimmer of hope came at the whistle when Josh Ginnelli was denied by the leg of goalkeeper Pierluigi Golini.
But within minutes of the restart, Hearts’ comeback took a near-impossible mission as Nelson pulled at Jovic’s shirt as the striker broke clean and was shown red.
Gordon parried efforts from Jovic and Terezic, while Ricardo Saponara curled over, but the third finally arrived when Koome set up Jovic to finally find the net and put a more realistic color on the scoreline.
