Ange Postecoglou's Hearts v Celtic Scottish Cup Q+A in full

Another impressive performance for Celtic in the cup. What did you make of it all today?

Yeah, I thought we were really good today. We knew it was a challenging week for us. We played Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday and the last game is one that we knew was going be the most intensive with the nature of it being a cup game away from home particularly here at Tynecastle. I thought the lads handled it really well. We started the game really strongly and for the most part, we dominated the game and played some great football and credit to them. They've navigated the whole week really well.

You scored some brilliant goals as well, especially those two in the first half. They were just fantastic, weren't they?

The quality of our goals recently has been outstanding and I think we have obviously got a lot of confidence at the moment, which you can see, but so a lot of belief in what we do.

Did Carl Starfelt pick up an injury?

Yeah, he felt the niggle in his hip flexor in the warm-up, actually. He kind of flagged that really early on in the game. We got him through to half-time, but you could see he wasn't moving well. In the first half he wasn't his normal self, so we made the change but I don't think it's any significant. It was good to get Yuki (Kobayashi) some game time. You can see his quality and again he's only a young man and I thought he did well when he came on.

He doesn't get a lot of credit but Joe Hart made two big saves as well with Hearts' only chance didn't he?

Joe is a top-quality keeper and it seems like he doesn't have a lot to do, but it's still a very important part of our structure with the way we start the build-up of the game. On Wednesday night he had to leave his penalty area a couple of times and sweep and he does these things with a sort of efficiency, but obviously goalkeepers sometimes it's the saves that give them the prominence and it's a great save today when we needed him. It was probably the only part of the game which was a small part of the game where they got a little bit of traction in it which we knew would happen. When you come to Tynecastle, they're gonna create at least a couple of opportunities but again I thought the boys were really strong when we needed to be defensively.

That's 26 goals now for Kyogo (Furuhashi). Can you see him getting into the 30s this season?

The key thing for us is, again, Kyogo has had a massive shift this week. You can't underestimate the workload he's put in leading the line all week, but he was still running today and you could see he was really fatigued towards the end of it. He's getting rewarded for the hard work he's putting in and the quality he possesses. His teammates appreciate him and I think he appreciates playing in this team. From our perspective every time he plays, I think he's a goal threat and I'm sure there are more goals that come.

You are through to the semi-final and nine points clear in the League. Do you allow yourself to start thinking about winning all the competitions or do you keep the treble word out of it?

How many times and in how many different ways have you asked that question mate? It's creative of you, I've gotta give you that. We've got Hibs next week, mate. That's where our focus is and it's worked well for us to do it that way it's not throw-away lines it's I think you have to be that way and I get it. I spoke about it before the game football in Scotland is very much a cauldron. There isn't a person, who lives here, who's not, hasn't got an interest or some skin in the game. There's always a lot of noise, a lot of talk. I've heard a lot of talk. Our role within that is to try and stay really disciplined and focus on what's important to us. The lads have embraced that, they understand that and if you take your eye off the ball you're going to trip up. We won't and we never look beyond the next challenge not because it's a cliche but because we know that's the only way we're going to achieve what we want to achieve.

You must feel though if you continue this form it's going to be hard for anybody to stop you?

You've hit the nail on the head. If we continue the form and there's always the possibility that you won't, if you don't concentrate if you're not disciplined. If you don't work hard every day and this group does and all credit to them. It's easy for me to talk about these things, but they do. You see that you guys see the end product, but I see it on a daily basis and that's the whole group of guys who are playing, the guys who are not getting minutes. Every day they push each other to be the best they can be. As a consequence of that our performances have been really strong and I think we are getting stronger. I think every week we're looking a stronger and better team. I think we're a better team now than we were at the start of the year and we weren't that bad a team at the start of the year. So the idea now is we've got Hibs next week and it's an important game for us, particularly at home, because then the international break comes and then we can get the head down and head for the finish line.

How do you think Yuki Kobayashi did when he came on?

Yeah, I thought we did well. He's a very, very good footballer. You can see that he's so calm on the ball. Having the left-sided centre-back is such an asset. He's only 22 and as a defender, he's still got a lot to learn, but again, he works hard every day. He works hard. Fortunately, we have got John Kennedy in the building and he's an outstanding centre-back. Yuki does a lot of work with John every day just to be ready for his opportunity. He's definitely one who we think can be a strong contributor between now and the end of the year.

I know you don't like singling people out but Jota and Aaron Mooy were bang at it today - weren't they?

They were both good. I thought Jota was really good today and Aaron's been good for quite a while. For the whole group, it's not easy as three games in six days is tough. That's the reason we made changes on Wednesday night. I thought both fullbacks were outstanding today coming back in. They can only do that because we had two other fullbacks who did a job for us on Wednesday night. All these kinds of things are helping the players maintain their performance levels. I thought the whole group did well. Everyone said it's not an easy place to come to Tynecastle castle and everyone knew what was at stake for hearts because this was their p their biggest chance for a trophy. We knew it was going to be a tough ask but as always the boys handled it really well.

There were no gifs this week involving Cameron-Carter Vickers was there?

Yeah, no gifts? Sorry yeah, the gif. The lingo got me there mate. It was great for him to get his goal and again he's such an enormous contributor for us. It's not easy to play as a defender in that team because you need to do a lot of one-on-one defending and he's just so strong. He just doesn't get beaten in any duels and he's just so calm. I think that gives confidence to the guys around him and that's the reason I sort of gave him the armband when Callum McGregor was out. He doesn't say much to be fair and he's pretty quiet, but he goes about his business in a way that I think gives others belief and confidence around him. It was good to see him get a goal and no gifs.

How important was the early goal to quieten the home crowd?

Yeah, it was important. We spoke about it when you come to Tynecastle, I think the one thing you don't want to do is give their crowd, they're going to be up and about anyway, so we needed to start the game really strong. We didn't want to give him any oxygen. I said to the lads at the beginning of the game, they'll cheer for everything. They'll cheer for a throw-in, so we've got to quieten them down and the way we started was outstanding. Not just the goal but we created a couple of great chances too and our defensive work to not really allow them to get up the park at all I thought really sort of set the stall for us then go on and win the game. Cheers.