Hearts of Oak coach Herbert Addo says his team were second best to Tunisian side Esperance and was not surprised by the nature of their defeat.

The Phobians suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of the Blood and Gold in the first leg final round qualifier of the Caf Confederation Cup tie on Sunday.

Hearts having enjoyed an impressive away run in the competition failed to score as they suffered their second defeat in the competition.

 “The Esperance players have been together, they play as a team and exhibit good technique anytime they are on the ball,” said Addo in an interview with Joy sports

“They capitalized on our mistakes so I thought they were superior than we were so we cannot complain.

“They gave us a good game and it is an experience for our boys because my players are very young and I think they will go far.

“Esperance are professionals and we are learning to be professionals so that is the result and we couldn’t do anything about it.”

Meanwhile Esperance coach Jorge Morais was delighted with the win and praised his players for the resounding victory.

“It was important to score and I think secret is that the players were there to give answers to some criticisms received before this game,” he told Joy Sports

“They worked so hard to score the number of goals they did and I must say I am proud of them.

“To play at home you always have the advantage over your opponents with the fans behind you but the disadvantage is that when your opponents scores it is counted as two but were fortunate because they didn’t score.”

Hearts must win by the same margin or even better in the return leg in Accra on June 7 to progress to the group stage of the competition.