Rangers have been drawn against Hearts in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup as Philippe Clement looks to add more silverware.
The Gers boss knows that it won’t be easy but, if he can add the famous old trophy to the Viaplay Cup, then he can be proud of his season’s efforts – regardless of what happens in the league.
There have been a few encounters between Rangers and Hearts in recent seasons in cup competitions with one of them proving to be a real sliding doors moment at Ibrox.
Rangers v Hearts Scottish Cup tie serves up Gerrard exit question
This season has seen a 3-1 win already in the league cup semi-final at Hampden with the previous meeting in cup competitions being when Giovanni van Bronckhorst delivered a long-awaited Scottish Cup triumph.
The last time that the two sides met in the Scottish Cup was four years ago now and it is a night that few Rangers fans will forget after a dismal defeat to bottom of the table Hearts ended Steven Gerrard’s chance of silverware in his second season.
Speaking at the time, shortly before the Covid-19 enforced shut-down, the Gers boss looked close to quitting:
“I need to think hard about where we are at as a group. I need to do some real, serious thinking in the next 24, 48 hours. I am feeling pain right now because I want to win here, I am desperate to win here.
“Looking from the side today, I didn’t get the impression that the feeling amongst my players was the same. The performance was nowhere near good enough.”
Rangers had lost to Kilmarnock and drawn with St Johnstone shortly before losing to Hearts at Tynecastle, a fixture also remembered for Alfredo Morelos sitting on the bench due to arriving back from international duty late.
To make matters worse, Rangers followed up the defeat to Hearts with an incredible loss to Hamilton at Ibrox.
Incredible, because we had 31 attempts at goal and still couldn’t find a way through against a side fighting relegation.
It wasn’t just the results, it was the performances too.
Winning 1-0 against Livingston and Ross County in between the poor results wasn’t exactly reassuring.
Gerrard looked like he’d had enough.
Thankfully, he didn’t hand his notice in because the following season was one of the most memorable in modern history.
That game was the last time Hearts beat us in any competition, hopefully, it remains that way until the end of this season, at least.
