Hearts will enter the Champions League qualifiers next season for the first time in two decades, following Celtic’s victory over Rangers on Sunday that guaranteed both sides a top-two finish in the Scottish Premiership.
While Derek McInnes’ team would have preferred a Celtic slip-up to boost their own title hopes, Martin O’Neill’s side’s win confirmed that Rangers can now finish no higher than third.
This marks the first time since McInnes’ Aberdeen split the Old Firm in consecutive seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18) that Glasgow’s two clubs are not occupying the top spots.
The Scottish Premiership runners-up will begin in the Champions League second qualifying round, needing to win three ties before reaching the league phase.
The league champions enter the play-off round—the stage where Celtic lost to Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty at the start of this season.
Hearts will hope they, rather than Celtic, are the ones entering at that stage, as it would mean they have won their first league title since 1960. They can secure that by beating Falkirk at home on Wednesday and then avoiding defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday. If they win in Glasgow, what happens midweek—when Celtic visit Motherwell—becomes irrelevant.
Hearts last appeared in the Champions League qualifiers after the 2005-06 season, when they finished second to Celtic. They defeated Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Siroki Brijeg in the second qualifying round before losing to AEK Athens in the next round.
For Rangers, they will enter the Conference League qualifiers unless Celtic win the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline Athletic. In that scenario, Danny Rohl’s side would move up to the Europa League preliminary rounds.