Van Dijk wary of friendly fire

The Celtic centre-half, no stranger to a shot from distance himself, spent a season or two with Ozturk at Groningen, forging an enduring friendship. The 23-year-old also shares an agent, Henk-Maarten Chin, with Ozturk and his Hearts' team-mate Soufian El Hassnaoui, but still the M8 has proved too daunting an obstacle to negotiate when it comes to socialising. "We don't meet up. Edinburgh is a bit too far," said Van Dijk.

While the Dutchman made himself a regular at the Euroborg Stadium, Ozturk's career continued at Cambuur and Trabzonspor in Turkey, but Van Dijk said: "I talk to Alim a lot. He was promoted from the youth teams when I was at Groningen, he trained with us and played some games as well. He is a good guy and he is doing well. He is a good player, a smart player, another Dutch player who loves to play the ball out from the back. He is still developing but I think he has a big future ahead of him.

"It was a great goal [versus Hibs], but I already knew that he could score those kind of goals so it wasn't a surprise. I've never scored one like that so maybe he is better at shooting than me ... although maybe I am better at other things! We will see on Sunday."

While Ozturk will line up on the other side of the pitch, Van Dijk's immediate opponent in today's Scottish Cup meeting at Tynecastle could be El Hassnouai, who started for the Tynecastle side against Rangers last week in the absence of the injured Osman Sow.

"He is another very good player," said Van Dijk. "The same agent again - so my agent must be doing well! Soufian played at De Graafschap before his injury and he was very good. He is doing well now, getting back on a good level and getting good game-time. I am happy for him as well but hopefully he is not going to score on Sunday - if I do my job right then he won't."

A visit to Gorgie on Scottish Cup duty is normally pencilled in as the most difficult of assignments but events didn't turn out that way at this stage last season. Celtic were five up by half time en route to an eventual 7-0 victory. Van Dijk strolled through that game but expects a more challenging afternoon today.

"This is a different Hearts team, definitely," he said. "We played very well that game, we dominated the whole 90 minutes and scored some great goals. Hopefully we are going to do that again on Sunday but it is going to be a totally different game. We know Hearts will come at us and we need to be totally ready from the first minute."

For the time being, Hearts play their football outwith the Premiership but victory over Rangers last week was a warning of the quality they can call upon. Midfielders such as Morgaro Gomis and Prince Buaben would grace most Premiership sides, while Spaniard Miguel Pallardo has around 100 La Liga appearances to his name. Although Celtic ran out 3-0 winners in a League Cup meeting at Celtic Park this season, Hearts contributed massively to their own downfall.

"I think they are a very good side," said Van Dijk. "It is unfortunate that they are not in the Premiership because they are a very big club. Hopefully they come back next year and do well. Last week was a warning but everybody in our team knows already what they are capable of. They gave us a difficult game here. They got a penalty because of me, and it was almost a turning point in the game. They didn't take it, but we need to be prepared and focused from the start."

After Europa League progression was clinched in midweek - albeit in unsatisfactory fashion, as they lost to Red Bull Salzburg - victory today would see Celtic still in four competitions as they head into 2015. "It is a big improvement from last year, when we were very disappointing in the cups," said Van Dijk. "We had a slow start to the season but we are still in everything and that is the most important thing. We must be doing something well."

The promise of last-32 Europa League meetings with Dutch sides such as Feyenoord, PSV and Ajax awaits, but with normal partner Jason Denayer missing through injury, the Dutchman accepted that he and Efe Ambrose had reacted sluggishly to the threat posed by Salz- burg strikers Jonatan Soriano and Alan in the 3-1 reverse at Parkhead.

"It is a great achievement to get to the knockout stage," said Van Dijk. "Every game now will be a big task but we want to go as far as possible. You never know what will happen but if we want to keep progressing we will need to be better than we were on Thursday night, that's for sure.

"It was a very bad start for us, personally as well, but I think the second half was good. We were unlucky that we didn't score an equaliser so we have to take the positives. I am very critical of myself and I know I need to be better. I need to learn from this, keep training and become a better player. We need to take that second half with us when up against Hearts."