| Premises: Hampden Park Date: Sunday, April 21 Start: 15:00 Polish time |
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With Rangers and Hearts competing for a place within the Scottish Cup final, the mood within the camps appears to have modified within the five months since they last met at Hampden.
In November, within the League Cup semi-final, Philippe Clement rejuvenated Rangers while Hearts huffed and puffed with Steven Naismith on the helm.
So much in order that a few months earlier Hearts fans had unfurled a banner reading “We deserve better” as rookie boss Naismith toiled to drum up support.
Now the Jambos are one game away from a second Scottish Cup final in three years, have secured European football for a third successive season and are 11 points clear of third place within the Premiership.
An impressive streak of 12 matches without defeat from mid-December to the tip of February ended emphatically at Ibrox with a 5-0 defeat – it helped.
By comparison, Rangers are on a dismal run of only one win of their last five league appearances and have conceded nine goals along the way in which – the identical tally as within the previous 21 since Clement arrived in October.
They left Europe and allowed Celtic to regain top spot within the title race, but are still chasing a domestic treble.
The English League Cup already has trophies in its case, with a run of 13 unbeaten games against Hearts and 11 goals scored against Hearts already this season, which suggests that Rangers are still favorites for the second semi-final of the Scottish Cup played this weekend.
Clement has “200% faith” within the “hungry” Rangers
Much has been written about Rangers’ recent run of form, in addition to the conflicting messages which have come from manager Clement and player Dujon Sterling regarding their recent performances.
The Belgian, who won his first trophy on the club after just nine weeks in charge, ignored suggestions from some fans that the probabilities of a revival were poor.
“I think this team has really improved its performance, attitude and resilience since October, and they have proven that several times over in six months,” he said. “This is what they need to do again. So yes, I am 200% confident that this can be achieved.
Clement is comfortable with such analysis and knows it is part and parcel of the job at Rangers, who ended a 13-year wait for Scottish Cup success against Hearts in 2022, which marked their 34th triumph in the competition.
“Winning, becoming champion is the only thing that matters,” he said. “But I’ve been like this my whole life. Nobody can be more critical than me because I want to win everything.
“If you win 10 games in a row you have more self-belief than if you lose twice, but Rangers is a club where you always have to fight.
“Every point you lose is like going to hell, but it’s an exciting place to be because on the other hand you can also go to heaven by winning games and winning trophies.”
‘Calm heads’ could make Hearts history
Hearts have lost all 4 games against Rangers this season – including at Hampden – but Naismith believes they’ll beat the Ibrox side for the primary time in 4 years.
Tynecastle have never beaten Rangers at Hampden Stadium, although they did beat them within the 1998 Scottish Cup Final at Celtic Park.
“We need to be better in possession than we were recently against Rangers,” Naismith said. If this happens, we could cause a lot of problems for them.
“This is the part of the games where we didn’t do well enough. We’ve been working on how we do it and we believe we’ll go into the game with a good plan to win it.”
Leading the attack might be Scotland captain and striker Lawrence Shankland. The 28-year-old has scored 28 goals in all competitions and insisted his full focus was on taking Jambos to the ultimate fairly than a potential place on the upcoming European Championships. He has a clear and calm head – exactly what Naismith expects.
“Getting to this point is difficult,” the top coach added. “The nerves, the adrenaline, the sense of opportunity – all these key moments happen over 90 minutes.
“It’s about having a calm head at the right moments to take advantage of those moments.”
Credit : www.bbc.co.uk
