Hearts secure third – and European football Jambos now guaranteed a Europa League play-off
Hearts have secured third place in the Premiership and will play European league-stage football next season. Despite losing 3-0 at Celtic on Saturday, the Edinburgh club cannot be caught after Rangers beat fourth-placed Kilmarnock 4-1 at Ibrox yesterday.
Light Blues skipper James Tavernier scored an own goal after 12 minutes of a chaotic, incident-packed first half, then had a penalty saved by Killie keeper Will Dennis after defender Joe Wright was sent off for handball.
Rangers pounded the Kilmarnock penalty area and Portuguese forward Fabio Silva levelled in the last of eight added minutes at the end of the first half.
Second-half substitute Ben Davies then scored his first Gers goal in the 62nd minute, with substitute Tom Lawrence curling in a superb third 10 minutes later and defender John Souttar heading in a fourth in added time.
All of that means that Hearts are 11 points ahead of the Rugby Park side with only nine left to play for, and are now guaranteed to be in the Europa League play-off in August. Victory in that two-legged tie would earn a place in the league phase of the tournament. Defeat would see them drop into the Conference League, earning a minimum £5m in UEFA revenue either way.
The Scottish Cup’s European slot goes to third in the Premiership this season because Celtic or Rangers will lift the trophy later this month, but they are both in Champions League positions in the league. That means third place enters the Europa League play-off, fourth place goes into the Europa League second qualifying round, and fifth place enters the Conference League second qualifying round.
Hearts are expected to be unseeded in the Europa League play-off and are therefore certain of a difficult draw.
Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Dundee are all competing for fourth and fifth spot.