Heart of Midlothian booked their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final with a captivating 3-1 win over Dundee at Tynecastle Park.
The Jam Tarts responded well to last weekend's Edinburgh derby disappointment and will now wait until Monday night to find out their opponents at Hampden Park next month, the game scheduled for the weekend of April 19/20.
Sander Kartum's stunning first-half strike gave Hearts the lead at the interval. The visitors got level through Joe Shaughnessy.
The game swung back and forth before Blair Spittal's free-kick was turned into his own net by Simon Murray. It then became the Kartum show when he spun in the middle of the pitch, advancing and then guiding an outside-of-the-foot effort into the corner past Trevor Carson.
Joel Sked and Craig Cairns look back at the action from Gorgie:
Hampden bound
'When the Hearts go up, to lift the Scottish Cup, we'll be there!'
Once or twice the song reverberated around Tynecastle Park as Hearts led 1-0 and 3-1 against Dundee. Hearts will return to Hampden Park. A stadium where they have not had much joy since winning the Scottish Cup in 2012, the club's last big trophy success. There have been seven defeats in Mount Florida in the last 13 years, four finals and three semi-finals, plus another two semi-final defeats, one at Easter Road and another at Murrayfield.
On the flipside, it is just two wins from cup glory with the added bonus of a return to the Conference League league phase at the least.
It was vital that Hearts responded to the defeat at Easter Road on Sunday, going down meekly to Hibs and losing ground in the league as they finished the weekend outside the top six.
The fast start didn't quite materialise with both teams cancelling each other out. It was an even first half with Hearts creating the better openings with Kenneth Vargas very lively.
The second half was a proper ding-dong cup tie with both teams giving as good as they got, the atmosphere hotting up, aided by a big travelling support. Hearts could have wilted after conceding an equaliser but pushed to get back in front. When they did they took full control, helped by facing opponents who give up goals like they are flyering at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Focus now switches back to the Premiership where Hearts have four games to secure their place in the top six, starting with Ross County at Tynecastle Park next Saturday.
Sander the star
After struggling to make his mark in his first start, last month at home to St Mirren, Sander Kartum sent Hearts into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup with two of the best goals you will see at Tynecastle this season.
The first was a pure strike from the edge of the box, and the Norwegian hungrily pounced on it as if he’d been waiting to be served such an opportunity for weeks. The outstretched Trevor Carson had no chance in the Dundee goal.
His second was even better and fell into the solo category. While collecting the ball in a seemingly innocuous position, Kartum turned beautifully, leaving Finn Robertson for dead, before driving towards the box and finishing with the outside of his boot through a populated penalty area.
Madre Mia x 2! 🤌pic.twitter.com/ZyCHQRZBQa
— Hearts Standard (@HeartsStandard_) March 7, 2025
Even beside his goals, Kartum was excellent and involved right away – always offering an option to defenders, always looking to be positive in possession. He put in his defensive shift too.
After his first goal, Kartum linked well in a one-two with Kenneth Vargas down the right, setting up another dangerous attack.
Towards the end of the half, he was involved in the move of the match – and a perfect example of the diamond formation in action. At different points, both Kartum and Blair Spittal dropped in to exchange passes with the defence to gain territory before launching an attack down the left but James Penrice’s cross was blocked.
Hearts fans had seen glimpses of what Kartum can do from the bench but his full debut was slightly disappointing. He has now put that behind him with this match-winning performance.
Vargas thrives
The Costa Rican international was in the starting XI for the first time since the third-round tie at Brechin City in January. His previous start before that came in the 1-0 defeat to 10-man Kilmarnock in December.
Other than the 15 minutes plus extra time against St Mirren in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, Vargas hasn’t played more than 19 minutes in a game since Brechin.
Still, he has scored twice from the bench recently – including the 6-0 win over Dundee the last time the sides met – as well as a penalty in the shootout win in Paisley.
Starting up front alongside Elton Kabangu, Vargas replaced James Wilson who dropped to the bench.
In the diamond, Neil Critchley wants his strikers to play on the shoulder of the defenders and look to either get in behind or else take them into wide areas to defend. With more pace than Wilson, the prospect of Vargas making those runs along with Kabangu was an exciting one going into the match.
While we didn’t see much of it in the first half, Vargas was a constant menace to the Dundee defence when the game opened up after the restart.
Vargas was unlucky not to open the scoring inside two minutes of kick-off when his shot flashed just wide.
He and Hearts faded after an encouraging start but after getting a grip of the game again they took the lead through Kartum. Vargas was involved in the initial build-up to win the throw-in, making the run that Kabangu probably should have made.
He had a chance to score not long after but hit it straight at the keeper, though it was a difficult one to take under pressure from two Dundee defenders.
Vargas kept up his performance levels in the second half – not everyone in a Hearts jersey did.
He had another chance to score just after the break and later in the half drew a foul from substitute Mo Sylla who, as the last man and Vargas about to run through on goal, was lucky only to see yellow for.
After making a rod for his own back with comments in November, Vargas has found game time hard to come by. He will be in the conversation for a start versus Ross County next weekend.
Defensive partnership
For the 13th time this season, Hearts started with a different centre-back partnership or trio. So far this campaign, eight centre-backs have been used. Due to injury to Jamie McCart, who has featured in every game since joining the club in January from Rotherham United, Michael Steinwender was partnered by Lewis Neilson who slotted into the left.
They were up against a lively duo in serial-pest Simon Murray and Oluwaseun Adewumi. It was a test they handled relatively well. Neilson had one of his best games in a Hearts shirt when the teams met at Dens Park earlier this year. Murray was largely kept quiet and was a peripheral figure. In the second half, with the game open, he swept across to provide an important intervention as Dundee broke forward.
Steinwender took on a leading role at the back and was dominant, one moment aside. The Austrian won so much in the air, whether it was from long balls or crosses into the box. Twice in the first half and at least once in the second he stepped on and powered a header away. There was, however, a moment at the end of the first half where he was caught by Adewumi. He did his best to recover and put the Dundee forward under pressure who fired his shot off the bar.
The Dundee goal was one that was a poor collective effort. Larkeche was allowed to get to the byline too easily and stand up a cross which Neilson was under and Joe Shaughnessy headered past Craig Gordon in front of James Penrice.
