Mohamed Salah scored one and set up the other as Trabzonspor proved too strong for Hearts in the Conference League.

The Liverpool legend dinked in a first-half penalty before teeing up Franculino Dju to fire in a magnificent second after the interval in an efficient display from the Turkish side.

Hearts, depleted by numerous injuries to key first-team players, were lost full-back Harry Milne in training on the eve of this game and lined up with attacker Rogers Mato as their left-back.

And defender Christian Borchgrevink was forced off through injury on the stroke of half time as head coach Wouter Vrancken's squad was further diminished.

Off the back of their 7-1 Scottish Premiership humbling by Celtic on Sunday, Hearts were under pressure to respond and should have taken an early lead when Malachi Fagan-Walcott hit a post with a free header.

However, Trabzonspor grew into the game and after two initial penalty claims were denied - the first for a close offside in the build-up - Salah stepped forward to slot his spot-kick down the middle of Beau Reus' goal.

Franculino, who won the penalty when he was felled by Tomas Magnusson, curled into the far corner to double the lead after a well-weighted one-two with Salah.

The whipped strike, coming just shy of the hour, put paid to any faint Hearts hopes of a comeback as they remain winless in the competition.

Josh McPake flashed wide as the game petered out, and the hosts' Sidny Lopes Cabral was shown a second yellow card for being a touch late on Sabah Kerjota.

Hearts remained diligent in their pressing and application, showing resilience and signs of a fightback from their chastening weekend.

Analysis: Salah's quality shines through

Undeterred by their unorthodox line-up and the stature of the opponents, Hearts made a commendable start, with one player singled out more than any other.

Not the Champions League and multiple Premier League winner Salah, but his direct opponent, Mato.

The Ugandan international was rumoured to be the starting left-back in the build-up, but few reckoned it would be reality until he was marking the Egyptian up and down the flank. Impressively so, too.

Salah, who left Liverpool last summer, joined the Turkish side as a free agent and was the player Hearts feared the most, but the home side are littered with quality and currently sit just three points off Galatasaray in their domestic league and have now won back-to-back Conference League games.

Mato kept Salah quiet for a chunk of the opening 45 minutes before the Trabzonspor captain first made an impact as his cross struck a Hearts' arm, but no penalty was awarded after a lengthy VAR intervention.

By his standards, he was relatively quiet for the 71 minutes he was on the park, but the guile to convert his penalty and the poise to assist the second goal are a testament to his quality.

What they said

Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken: "Against this individual quality was a real team today. I was really proud of the performance."

On starting Rogers Mato at full-back: "I knew he could match up the pace there and also I know that Rogers, when he's focused, that he's really strong in one-on-one duels especially for an offensive player.

"So happy to see that it worked out, because if Salah scores two, three times, everybody says it was a wrong decision and not a good one, but yeah, you have to have confidence in some guys.

"And when you see some guys playing out of position because the need was there, we had only one midfielder left to play, six injured.

"So happy to see those things happening and that we can bounce back from the result of last weekend and have a good team performance."(BCC)