The Scottish Cup semi-final draw offered no guarantees to the Premiership’s European hopefuls, but it would still take a monumental upset to deny one and affect the others.
Rangers or Celtic will contest the Scottish Cup Final against either Inverness CT or Falkirk. Only an all-Old Firm final would have set in stone the same qualification categories as last year. Hearts were guaranteed group stage football after beating rivals Hibs in the last four, safe in the knowledge that they were finishing third, with Celtic and Rangers – who went head-to-head in the other semi the following day – first and second.
This time around, Robbie Neilson’s team look set to finish best of the rest once again, but they have some work to do in order to make sure. The cup avenue was closed off to them at the weekend after Celtic cantered to a 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final victory at Tynecastle.
