Old Firm collision course as Levein’s left to regret
CELTIC and Rangers will meet for a fourth Scottish cup semi-final in a row if the Ibrox side beat Aberdeen in next week’s replay. Hearts or Partick Thistle, their quarter-final tie last night finished 1-1 at Firhill, were drawn against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. With that replay taking place at Tynecastle next Tuesday – same as the other quarter-final – Craig Levein’s men will be big favourites to make their first final since 2012, the last time Hearts won the Scottish Cup. Though the Hearts manager believed his team should have been through already having led at half-time of their tie. Asked if the replay could be avoided, Levein said: “Pretty much. We did enough to win in the first half and didn’t get that gap with the second goal which would have been game over. “Credit to Partick, they kept plugging away and caught us on a counter which was annoying because we’re usually good at dealing with that. “Their goal was from probably their first shot on target. They’re disappointed but our intention was to come out of the game still in the draw and we still are in the draw. “We’ve got a game back at Tynecastle which I feel confident about so it’s not a bad situation for us.” Levein felt that Uche Ikpeazu was hard done by late in the second half when he went down inside the Thistle box under a challenge by Gary Harkins. He said: “I really feel sorry for Uche. Just because he’s stronger people shouldn’t be allowed to foul him. I don’t care what way you go down – if you get fouled, it’s a penalty. Take that away, we still had other chances to kill it off. “I don’t want to start telling him to go down. He’s a strong boy and he should get an even break. If he’s stronger it’s not a foul but he constantly gets pulled up because he’s stronger than others. I think there’s nobody else in Scotland like him so he’s different and he gets penalised for being stronger. “I feel for him because you look at his performance he gives me everything you look for as a manager every week. He just doesn’t get an even break.” Gary Caldwell, the Partick Thistle manager, was proud of the way his team fought back and while they remain bottom of the Championship, they would face a side in their division for a place in the final should they knock out Hearts. Caldwell said: “I saw Inverness and they probably had the best display of all the semis. They’re a very good team but we have a huge task first. “The players know how difficult Tynecastle is and we have to be ready for the physical challenge, to be brave and cause them problems.”