Hearts won 2-1 in their penultimate Europa Conference League Group A match with RFS.
Manager Robbie Neilson knew his side's chances of reaching second and the knockout rounds were over after Fiorentina beat Istanbul Basaksehir earlier in the evening, but were still keen to arrest a form slide of 11 defeats from their last 15 games. It started brilliantly as Lawrence Shankland opened the scoring and Andy Halliday made it 2-0 before the 15-minute mark.
The hosts had other chances to score in the match but it was their visitors who struck next through Kevin Friesenbichler and he was so close to doubling the lead with an equally-impressive effort from 25 yards that rattled Craig Gordon's bar. Eventually they got over the line to move the Gorgie outfit onto six points ahead of their group closer against Istanbul next Thursday, although it was another night of defensive injury worries with Stephen Kingsley going off. Here is how we rated the Hearts players against Latvian opposition.
