The battle for the European spots in the Scottish Premiership is heating up.
Sunday was a pivotal day in said race with four of the sides in contention facing each other. Hibs beat Hearts 2-1 in the Edinburgh derby to go third, and remained there when Aberdeen and Dundee United drew 2-2.
Kevin Nisbet scored a Dons double to draw level after going two down and manager Jimmy Thelin was delighted his frontman is now getting the rewards for his hard work.
The Hibees are now favourites for third with Neil Critchley acknowledging Hearts are in a battle for the top six.
Motherwell are the other team in the mix, currently sitting sixth, while Ross County and St Mirren aren’t completely out of it but are six and seven points behind fifth respectively.
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Scottish Cup winners
Scotland’s Europa League play-off spot goes to the winners of the Scottish Cup in the first instance, meaning Aberdeen, Dundee, Hearts, Hibs, St Johnstone, Livingston or Queen’s Park could all lay claim to it if they can lift the trophy.
Should Celtic win the cup having already qualified for the Champions League, as they are favourites to do, the spot would go to whoever finishes third in the Premiership. Hibs are in the driving seat for that with Aberdeen and Dundee United looking to pile pressure on them.
Whichever team heads for the play-off would be just one two-legged tie away from reaching the league phase of the Europa League. Making that would bring a boost to the coffers of upwards of £5million, reports the Edinburgh Evening News.
Third place in the Premiership
If not catapulted into the Europa League play-offs as described above, finishing third in the Premiership would bring with it entry into the second qualifying round.
That would mean THREE two-legged ties to navigate before reaching the league phase and the £5m plus bounty, as opposed to just the one.
Losing in any of the qualifying rounds along the way would result in dropping into the Conference League.
Fourth in the Premiership
It will be straight into the Conference League qualifying for whoever ends up coming fourth in the Scottish top flight, at stage two.
Again, that would mean three qualifying rounds to reach the league phase of Europe’s third competition. Unlike above, there is no parachute into any other competition.
Should Celtic win the Scottish Cup, the team in fourth would then get the rewards for finishing third (Europa League qualifying second round) as described above.
Fifth in the Premiership
Dundee United are currently fifth in the Premiership but Hearts and St Mirren will have eyes on it, while Hibs and Aberdeen could easily find themselves there too.
Finishing in that position only brings European qualification if Celtic win the cup.
And the reward would be taking part in the Conference League from the second qualifying round.