Classic match: Hearts 3 Bologna 1, October 24 ,1990

Iain Ferguson, enjoying a new lease of life under Joe Jordan, chipped in with a third seven minutes before the interval, and as the whistle blew Hearts were as good as through.

The Italians were thrown a lifeline when goalkeeper Henry Smith was penalised for an obscure offence by Spanish referee Negreira.

In fact, the man in the middle, who threw cards around like confetti, had a poor game, only too willing to ignore numerous fouls by the visitors.

From the free-kick, Bonini touched the ball to Notaristefano whose shot from 16 yards was deflected in at Smith's left-hand post.

One could only assume that Smith had been pulled up for time-wasting as he prepared to make a clearance, but it was hardly in Hearts' interests to slow things up when they were so much in command and looking for further goals to kill the tie.

Italian sides are have acquired a reputation for their defensive qualities but it was easy to see why Bologna were firmly entrenched at the bottom of the table.

Goalkeeper Cusin inspired no confidence at all in those in front of him, and, apart from the Bulgarian, Illov, their defence was a shambles.

Captain Villa, who threw himself recklessly into tackles, could count himself fortunate when, having been booked for a foul on Ferguson as early as the 23rd minute, he committed a series of further offences.

In fact, Bologna had three players booked – Villa, Cusin and Di Giav (another guilty of persistent fouling) – while West German Horbert Waas was given his marching orders in 62 minutes for a wicked tackle on Craig Levein.

Hearts took full advantage of the confusion in the Bologna ranks, opening the scoring after just seven minutes when Foster dummied an Eamonn Bannon free-kick and skipped behind the defence to send an angled left-foot shot beyond Cusin as Ferguson played the ball on.

The Bologna defence was a mess and Foster took advantage of further slackness in 25 minutes to pull Hearts two up.

A low cross from Dave McPherson was mis-kicked by David Kirkwood but fell to John Colquhoun, whose cross found Foster all alone in the six-yard box to send a weak header in off Cusin's left-hand post.

Bannon, who had another fine European match for Hearts, was the provider for Ferguson, picking out his former Dundee United colleague with a cross from the left.

Cusin managed to turn his header onto the bar but Ferguson was sharp enough to nod the rebound into the net.

At that point, it looked as if Hearts could score at will, and Ferguson tested Cusin with a shot from 35 yards which the goalkeeper touched over.

The second-half did not live up to the first 45 minutes and, for a short time after Bologna scored, Hearts looked less clever, although the visitors were unable to close the gap.

Apart from the goal the only other minus points for Jordan's men were bookings for Levein and McPherson, Levein for an innocuous tussle and the captain for encroaching within ten yards at the free-kick which led to the goal.

The optimism of the result, which took Hearts so close to a place in the next round, was to be sadly snuffed out two weeks later when the Italians exacted revenge with a 3-0 win which tarnished the memory of a great European night at Tynecastle.

Hearts: Smith, McLaren, McKinlay, Levein, Kirkwood (D Ferguson), McPherson, Colquhoun, Berry, Foster, I Ferguson, E Bannon.

Bologna: Cusin, Mariani, Villa, Di Gia, Niev, Tricella, Verga, Bonini (Biondo), Waas, Notaristefano, Lorenzo (Campiono).

Taken from the Scotsman