With the Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Hearts only five days away, all the focus from both teams is on the Hampden showcase.
Celtic will be looking to achieve a unique fourth consecutive domestic treble, whilst Hearts will be aiming to win the cup for the first time since 2012.
Repeat of last season’s final
What hasn’t really been discussed that much is that the game is a repeat of last season’s cup final, where Celtic defeated Hearts 2-1. The Tynecastle side took the lead in the game thanks to a goal from Ryan Edwards, but Celtic edged the win thanks to two Odsonne Edouard goals.
Hearts captain Steven Naismith missed that game last year with an injury. However, he is available for this year’s final, and the pain of last season’s cup final loss is a motivating factor for he and the players at the club that lost the game.
“A lot of the boys have felt the disappointment of losing to Celtic in the last final, and we have to use that” he said (BBC Sport).
Team working on how to combat Scottish champions
Naismith also disclosed that Hearts will be working hard when they don’t have the ball in the cup final. The Hearts skipper believes that working on that could be key to the possibility of success at Hampden Park.
“We’ve been working hard on how we’re going to play and how we think we can get success. We need to be very intelligent in terms of what we do when Celtic have the ball. We’ll refine that plan this week and go into the final believing we can do it” Naismith concluded.