© EuroFootball.com
Valdo Ivanauskas coached Edinburgh "Hearts" will compete for the Scottish Cup - on Sunday the "Lithuanian" club in the capital teams derby in Glasgow crushed the "Hibernian" team and advanced to the tournament final, where they will meet with the third league "Gretna".
Although the representatives of "Hearts" wanted to move the match to the larger "Murrayfield" stadium in Edinburgh, as is customary for the Scottish Cup semi-finals, the match took place at the national Glasgow "Hampden" stadium. More than 40 thousand spectators watched the intriguing and long-awaited match.
In the ranks of "Hearts" after the match with "Falkirk" coach V. Ivanauskas made three substitutions - the disqualified Roman Bednar and Julien Brellier were replaced by Calum Elliot and Bruno Aguiar, while the successful Jose Goncalves retained his place in defense and took to the field instead of Takis Fyssas. Edgaras Jankauskas and Deividas Cesnauskis remained in the starting lineup, while Saulius Mikoliunas started the match on the bench.
V. Ivanauskas's pupils started the match actively and already in the first minute after Rudi Skacel's breakthrough, the defenders managed to repel the attack from Edgaras Jankauskas in the penalty area, and in the fourth minute, the Lithuanian was left alone to shoot from a sharp angle straight at the goalkeeper.
However, little by little the initiative was taken by "Hibernian" - the first to attack their opponents' goal from a distance unsuccessfully tried Steven Fletcher, and the powerful shot by Steven Whittaker was cleared by Craig Gordon. Later, S. Fletcher and Gary Caldwell headed toward the "Hearts" goal, while on the other side of the pitch P. Hartley's penalty kick was saved by "Hibernian" goalkeeper Zbigniew Malkowski.
Coach V.Ivanauskas watching his team's game (Heartsfc.co.uk photo)
The first goal of the match was scored in the 28th minute - R. Skacel, after taking the ball from Abdessalam Benjelloun, passed it to Paul Hartley, who passed it to the edge for Edgaras Jankauskas, who penetrated the penalty area and returned the ball to his teammate, whose shot from the outside of his foot reached the target.
After scoring the goal, the "Hearts" team settled down and tried to maintain possession, but just before the break, the team captain Steven Pressley suffered a head injury and could not continue the match after the break - the Greek Takis Fyssas took to the field.
After taking over the captain's armband from Pressley, P. Hartley once again threatened the "Hibernian" goal, and after a penalty kick, the rebounding ball was well saved by Z. Malkowski, however in the 59th minute that same P. Hartley took advantage of the Polish goalkeeper's positional mistake and skillfully slotted the ball into the far corner of the goal from the left.
"Hibernian" did not give up, and C. Whittaker's attempt had to be rejected by Craig Gordon, and "Hearts" were a bit hindered in the second half by the loss of another defender, as J. Goncalves suffered a serious injury after colliding with his goalkeeper. However, it did not have much significance, and when S. Mikoliunas took to the field after the substitution, he skillfully took the ball from Ivan Sproule, who grew angry and climbed on the Lithuanian's back and was sent off the field.
At the end of the match, with only ten "Hibernian" players left, they were completely disrupted and taking advantage of Z. Malkowski's mistake, the "Hearts" team scored their third goal through E. Jankauskas, who cleverly tricked the goalkeeper and calmly sent the ball into the empty goal. This was the seventh goal for the Lithuanian in the last six matches.
In the 88th minute, Gary Smith also received a red card for the last hope's foul on M. Posipilas, and Paul Hartley secured the victory with the penalty kick, completing the "hat-trick." "Hearts" celebrated an impressive victory in the derby against their city neighbors and advanced to the Scottish Cup final.
In the final on May 13th, "Hearts" will face the winner of the third division "Gretna" team, which extended their excellent season by defeating the second league "Dundee" in the semi-final. Kenny Deuchar scored the first goal just before the break, Ryan McGuffie added the second from the penalty spot in the 58th minute, and Barry Smith's goal finally ended the intrigue eight minutes before the end.
There were also matches in the Scottish Premier League over the weekend, where the battles for the sixth place and the positions at the bottom of the league table took place. "Aberdeen" secured an important victory in the top six by defeating direct rival "Inverness" with a minimal advantage.
Reducing the gap from "Hearts" to three points was the Glasgow "Rangers" in third place - the team that lost the championship title convincingly defeated "Dundee Utd" away. The most productive player in the league, Kris Boyd, scored three goals for the winning team.
Meanwhile, the absolute outsider "Livingston" conceded a goal in the final minute away against "Motherwell" and further distanced themselves from the relegation-rescuing teams "Dunfermline" and "Falkirk," whose mutual match ended in a draw.
Scottish Cup semi-final results
"Gretna" 3 - 0 "Dundee" 45` [1 - 0] Kenny Deuchar 58` [2 - 0] Ryan McGuffie (pen.) 82` [3 - 0] Barry Smith (own goal) 0 - 4 28` [0 - 1] Paul Hartley 59` [0 - 2] Paul Hartley 81` [0 - 3] Edgaras Jankauskas 88` [0 - 4] Paul Hartley (pen.)
Scottish Championship 32nd round results
1 - 1 21` [0 - 1] Jack Ross 50` [1 - 1] Mark Burchill 0 - 1 83` [0 - 1] Steve Lovell 2 - 1 40` [1 - 0] Jim Hamilton 76` [1 - 1] Noel Whelan 90` [2 - 1] Brian McLean 1 - 4 30` [0 - 1] Dado Prso 31` [0 - 2] Kris Boyd 54` [0 - 3] Kris Boyd 68` [1 - 3] Collin Samuel 83` [1 - 4] Kris BoydLeague table
