Hearts – Aberdeen: 7th May 2017

Heavy duty

Hearts ranks fifth in the Scottish Leagues’ play-off, with 46 points in 34 rounds. Thus, Ian Cathro’s students have entered the play-off without emotion, but now the stakes are a much more important one: qualification in the UEFA Europa League preliminaries. Only Premier League 2-4 will have the privilege to enter the initial stages of the Europa League, so Hearts will have to pull hard to overtake the ones at St. Johnstone. The six-point handicap versus the ranking rival is not a big one, but “The Jambos” will have an extremely difficult mission on Sunday afternoon in front of Scottish en-titre vice-champion.

No pressure

Aberdeen ranks second in the “Premiership” standings, with 67 points scored in 34 stages. So, although Derek McInnes’s band started on the left with this play-off, being defeated on the ground by St. Johnstone (0-2), this result has not affected the chances of the Eastern Scottish group to end the tournament without excitement in second place. As the difference to Celtic is irrecoverable, the “white-and-green” champions of Scotland More than a month ago, all that remains to do with Aberdeen is to reinforce its current position, pressed by Glasgow Rangers, who does not give signs that they can find the resources to climb 2 until the end of the season.
Direct meetings

In the last ten direct confrontations between the two bands, Hearts was forced four times, Aberdeen as well, while the other two duels ended with a draw;

The most recent direct strike took place a month and a half ago, when Aberdeen was impelled without any emotions on the ground, score 2-0;