Late goals leave Kilmarnock and Hearts with uphill tasks in Europe

Hearts and Kilmarnock conceded late goals to leave them with an uphill task to progress in Europe.

Hearts' Europa League hopes were dented as a 96th minute own goal by Daniel Oyegoke handed them a 1-0 defeat against Viktoria Plzen.

Kilmarnock conceded twice late on to lose 2-0 against Copenhagen in the Conference League.

Both Scottish sides were away from home in the first legs and will hope to reverse the scoreline next Thursday.

Hearts pain

Luckless Daniel Oyegoke's own goal deep in second-half stoppage-time gave Viktoria Plzen a narrow 1-0 advantage over Hearts in their Europa League play-off tie in the Doosan Arena.

The home side probably had more of the clear-cut chances in the first leg in Czechia but it looked like Steven Naismith's side would take a goalless draw back to Tynecastle for the return game next week.

However, in the final minute of six added at the end of the far-from-thrilling encounter, a cross to the back post by home substitute Cadu was turned into his own net from close range by Oyegoke - who came on for Gerald Taylor after 75 minutes - to hand the home side victory.

On the evidence of 90 minutes plus, however, the Gorgie side will fancy their chances of overturning that scoreline in Edinburgh.

There was an historic aspect to the night with 41-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon making his 23rd European appearance for Hearts, surpassing Steven Pressley and Henry Smith's record of 22 - and he made key saves.

Naismith made five changes to the side which started the Premier Sports Cup defeat by Championship side Falkirk at the weekend, while moving to three at the back.

Captain Lawrence Shankland, Frankie Kent, Kye Rowles, Jorge Grant and Cammy Devlin all started and soon, like the rest of the Tynecastle side, found themselves on the back foot.

In the 18th minute, Gordon made a good reaction save from Milan Havel's header at the back post.

A minute or so later he was beaten by Pavel Sulc's shot from 16 yards, but defender Grant cleared the ball, a yard from goal.

In the 35th minute, Erik Jirka's deep cross from the left was headed wide by Havel at the far post but Hearts pepped up towards the end of the first half.

Four minutes later, defender Rowles set up attacker Kenneth Vargas but his lob past Marian Tvrdon went wide before he was clattered by the home goalkeeper, with half-hearted penalty claims ignored by referee Sven Jablonski.

The Edinburgh side stepped up their efforts and Shankland had two drives saved by Tvrdon, allowing Naismith and his men to go into the interval with more encouragement and Vargas started the second half by flashing a shot over the crossbar.

However, Gordon had to make another save from Sulc's close-range drive after Lukas Cerv burrowed into the Jambos box in Viktoria.

Plzen tried for force the goal but Hearts held firm.

In the 78th minute, Sulc's goal-bound drive from 16 yards hit defender Stephen Kingsley and went behind for a corner which was again defended.

But all Hearts' good work was undone in the final seconds by Oyegoke, although Hearts will believe this tie is far from over.

Killie wilt in Denmark

Kilmarnock suffered the cruellest of European defeats in the Danish capital as they went down 2-0 to FC Copenhagen.

Killie frustrated their hosts for much of the first leg of their UEFA Conference League play-off but fell to a harsh VAR-assisted penalty and then a set-piece goal just as five minutes of stoppage-time elapsed.

Kilmarnock goalkeeper Kieran O'Hara, again deputising for the injured Robby McCrorie, had been largely untroubled before Kevin Diks' penalty was just out of his reach in the 77th minute.

Italian referee Fabio Maresca had stopped play out of the blue before going to the monitor and penalising David Watson for catching Mohamed Elyounoussi on the calf as the pair challenged for a bouncing ball at a corner.

The former Celtic winger had already played the ball with the corner coming to nothing and the incident was far from clear or obvious, as well as being inconsequential, immediately at any rate.

Worse was to come for Killie when Rasmus Falk volleyed home from a half-cleared corner to leave the visitors with an uphill task of reaching the group stage and accessing what manager Derek McInnes had described as "unimaginable" financial benefits of about £4million.

McInnes handed full-back Jack Burroughs a debut following his loan and started with both Kyle Vassell and Marley Watkins for the first time this season.

Copenhagen beat Manchester United and Galatasaray at the Parken Stadium last season on their way to the last 16 of the Champions League but Killie gave them a scare when Watson sent Vassell through one-on-one with Denis Vavro.

Vassell beat the centre-back before being hacked to the ground but Maresca decided Diks was just about to cover and brandished a yellow card.

Killie had a series of set-pieces before O'Hara pulled off his only first-half save of note to safely parry Vavro's bouncing 30-yard strike behind for a corner.

Liam Donnelly and Lewis Mayo made some crucial challenges in the Killie box and the former saw a shot deflected wide after Watkins got in behind towards the end of a satisfactory first half for the visitors.

The Danes stepped up a gear just after the break with Giorgi Gocholeishvili heading wide from a good chance before O'Hara saved from Elyounoussi.

Stuart Findlay made some good interventions and Diks fired wide as Killie continued to look solid despite being pushed back.

The Italian match officials had other ideas though and Elyounoussi fired over from six yards after Killie were caught out moments after the opener.

With striker Vassell off with a knock, the Ayrshire side looked to be settling for a narrow defeat until Falk's volley flew past O'Hara seconds after the five minutes of time added on were up.

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