Levein happy to play cup holders anywhere after watching side reach last four
Craig Levein says he does not care whether their Betfred League Cup semi-final is played at Hampden or Murrayfield.
The Premiership leaders triumphed over Motherwell in a superb cup tie under the Tynecastle lights and were rewarded with a head-to-head with defending champions Celtic but with both Brendan Rodgers’ men and Glasgow rivals Rangers involved in Europe earlier that week both semi- finals look set to be scheduled for October 28, with Murrayfield the other possible venue.
“Does it matter if it’s at Murrayfield? Listen we will play wherever we have to play,” said the Tynecastle manager after his side had battled back from a goal down to defeat their Fir Park opponents 4-2. “I didn’t even know the circumstances really until after the match. It’s not going to be a home tie for anyone. So wherever we play we will play.”
He also had no qualms about facing the double treble winners, adding: “I’m not bothered. Honestly I’m not. I looked at it and I thought what’s the point? There are three really good teams. For me it’s about getting through the game tonight and getting to the semi-finals. Then we can think about Hampden – or wherever it is going to be.”
Now unbeaten in 12 games this season, the capital side have already defeated the Parkhead team and Levein says he is hopeful that they can repeat the feat next month and take a step closer to the club’s first League Cup win since 1962 and their first silverware
0 Craig Levein: Hopeful
since winning the Scottish Cup in 2012.
“You are always hopeful. You just need to look at our last two games to see when we are not playing absolutely brilliantly, in our worst performances our drop-off rate is not that much. But we will need another performance like tonight if we are to get through the semi final.” Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson was disappointed not to be in the draw, though he admitted his men had lost to a “very good side”.
“It was a good cup tie and we scored two cracking goals away from home; when you do that, you probably expect to come away with a result.
“We could potentially have had a second penalty [when Bowman claimed to have been pushedbyjimmydunneinthe box] but the referee was never going to give that at Tynecastle, let’s be honest.
“We punched above our weight getting this far and you look at their team and Steven Naismith was a class above and he probably made the difference because he has that extra bit of quality. Perhaps that’s what we’re missing because we’re about hard work and endeavour; our budget dictates that, but I’m confident that we can use this night as a catalyst to move on.”