HEARTS Steven MacLean has upped the anti before Sunday’s semi-final tie by declaring he hopes Celtic lose tonight in Germany.

The Hearts player wants any advantage he can think of and believes a Celtic loss will be a big boost for Hearts.

Nobody is looking for any Hearts player to come out of support of Celtic’s Euro aspirations but it is a bit telling he’s felt the need to come out and say the exact opposite.

“We’ve beaten Celtic already this season so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.” McLean said.

“Obviously they’ve picked up since then and scored 10 goals in their last two games.

“But we’ve got belief. We’ve got a bit about us, boys who can score goals, so we’re looking forward to it.

“Hopefully they (Celtic) lose tomorrow night and lose a bit of confidence and we’ll see what happens on Sunday!”

“Of course, you want all Scottish teams in Europe to do well but I hope they have a hard game as that can help us.

“If we’ve got something we can hold on to and they’re pushing and we know we can go the distance then we know we can make it hard for teams.”

Celtic will fly back from Germany tonight straight after the game and will begin preparation for their semi-final showdown regardless of the result.

In past years Celtic have had a good record overall of bouncing back and being ready or domestic action after a tough European night.

It’s nice to see the vale slipping though.