Steven Naismith was delighted at his side’s performance as they powered to the last eight of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup with a 4-1 thumping of Airdire.
Hearts raced into a three-goal lead with just 21 minutes on the clock after goals from Lawrence Shankland, Kenneth Vargas and Calem Nieuwenhof had them on easy street.
Adam Frizzell restored some hope for the hosts, though that would be extinguished when Shankland dinked home his 24th goal of the season with 17 minutes remaining.
“It was a really good performance, we scored early goals, scored four goals and it’s a comfortable night,” Naismith said.
“On top of that, the detail that we’d worked on, nearly all of it was right and the players executed it brilliantly.
“There was loads of positives. I’d say we’re still a good bit away, we could be more clinical and in some moments I think when it went 3-0 we picked the wrong option and were forcing it.”
Hearts will now travel to Morton in the quarter-finals, hoping to reach Hampden for the second time this season having already made the semi-final of the Viaplay Cup.
Dougie Imrie’s cinch Championship side shocked Motherwell to book their place in the next round, and Naismith is anticipating a tough encounter.
“Everybody in the last eight thinks they have a chance,” he added.
“Our tie away to Morton, people will think we are favourites, but think there’s a potential upset there.
“I think if we’re not at it then it’ll be a really difficult game, they’ve shown on Friday that they are a good team and are in form.
“We want to go as far as we can, one of the games this season that is disappointing is the semi-final in the last cup – we want to get to the semi-final and do well this time.”
Despite a night filled with positives for the Tynecastle side, there was one major disappointment as Craig Halkett limped off after 25 minutes.
Halkett had only recently returned from a year long lay-off with a ruptured ACL, though Naismith is hopeful the defender will make a speedy recovery.
“It’s just something with his knee, it doesn’t seem to be major but we don’t know at the moment,” he explained.
“We’ll just have to wait and see, at that moment in the game there wasn’t any major risk to continue on.”
Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe felt his side were competitive against their Premiership opponents, despite coming out on the end of a comprehensive defeat.
“I thought for large parts of the first half we were competitive,” McCabe said.
“We started the game really well with intent and didn’t sit off the game as probably a lot of smaller clubs would do against a big club like Hearts.
“You give a player the quality of Lawrence Shankland three or four opportunities then he’s bound to take one or two.
“There are loads of positives going around this club, yes we lost the game and are disappointed, but we’ve just come up from League One through the play-offs, got into the last 16 of the Scottish Cup and have the final of the Challenge Cup against The New Saints in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
PSG's latest Ligue 1 title arrives as Monaco lose to Lyon
Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned as Ligue 1 champions after Lyon overcame Monaco 3-2 on Sunday.
A 4-1 midweek win over Lorient ensured that one more victory would be enough for Luis Enrique's team to get over the line, but PSG failed to get the job done themselves when they faced relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday.
That game was the 700th match of the QSI era at PSG, and the club's 1,900th in France's top flight.
However, PSG's wait to win their third straight title did not last long, as less than 24 hours later, Lyon – who will face the Parisians in the final of the Coupe de France at the end of May – came out on top in a topsy turvy encounter with second-placed Monaco.
Substitute Malick Fofana was the matchwinner for Lyon, and ultimately the player who handed the title to PSG.
Wissam Ben Yedder had put Monaco ahead in the opening minute, but quickfire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Said Benrahma turned the match on its head before half-time.
Ben Yedder netted his second to restore parity on the hour mark, and thought he had sealed his hat-trick when he volleyed in from a free-kick, only to have strayed offside.
With only a win good enough for Monaco to stay in the fight, the visitors were then caught out in the 84th minute, with Fofana racing onto Lacazette's throughball and finishing calmly.
After a dismal start to the season, relegation looked a real possibility for Lyon, but they are now, with three games remaining, still in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.
PSG on the other hand now have 12 Ligue 1 titles to their name, with 10 of those coming under QSI's ownership. Aside from the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season, five of their last six league titles have been secured before the start of May.
It also means Luis Enrique remains in the running for a treble in his first season at the club, with PSG taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals next week.
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