hearts hold all the aces published: thursday 27 july 2006, 0.45cet heart of midlothian fc 3-0 nk široki brijeg late strikes from ibrahim tall and roman bednář moved hearts into a commanding position.
by alex o'henley from murrayfield
an own goal from branimir anić and late strikes from ibrahim tall and roman bednář gave heart of midlothian fc a comfortable 3-0 uefa champions league victory against nk široki brijeg in this second qualifying round first-leg tie.
hearts intent valdas ivanauskas's side signalled their intent after 38 seconds when neil mccann picked out bruno aguiar's run into the box only for the portuguese midfielder to lift his shot just over. mccann should have opened the scoring on eleven minutes but sent a free header wide from close range. for their part the bosnian champions were largely content to sit back and frustrate hearts, but six minutes before the break wagner lago went close with a long-range free-kick which drifted just wide of craig gordon's upright. just seconds after the interval bednář was only denied by a last-ditch block from anić from robbie neilson's long throw-in.
unlucky anić it proved to be a rehearsal for the opener which duly arrived moments later when neilson's throw-in was headed into his own net by anić under pressure from steven pressley. as hearts searched for a second goal aguiar hit the angle of the crossbar with a free-kick from 20 metres before tall drilled in his first goal for hearts from substitute michal pospíšil's cross. with five minutes remaining bednář added a third, latching on to a short back-pass from ivica landeka before calmly slotting past bašić. hearts captain pressley said: "the important thing is that we didn't concede any goals and we've got a very good cushion going into the second leg. i believe we can go out there and get a goal and if we do i think that will kill the tie off."
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