FINAL SAY TO RANGERS
Gerrard’s men blow Hearts away to set up Hampden Old Firm clash
PLAYED five, lost five, scored none, conceded ten. Before this emphatic dismissal of Hearts, the recent record of Rangers in domestic cup semi-finals at Scotland’s National Stadium read more like a crime sheet.
There was the defeat by Aberdeen in the same competition last year, and a loss to Motherwell the season before that. Spliced along the way by three defeats to Celtic, the last of which was a humiliating 4-0 thrashing.
The measure of the improvement in Steven Gerrard’s team will now be tested once more by a meeting at Hampden with their arch-rivals in the Betfred League Cup final on December 8.
Rangers breached their Hampden hoodoo with a performance of power and attacking flair against a managerless, limited and comprehensively outplayed Hearts team.
Alfredo Morelos took his season’s total to 20 with a double, had another chalked off for offside, and teed up a timely opener for Filip Helander before half-time. The Colombian was a deserved man of the match, yet in Ryan Kent and Ryan Jack, Rangers had no shortage of candidates.
After Craig Levein was sacked last Thursday his No 2, Austin MacPhee, expected to learn much about his chances of landing the Tynecastle manager’s job on a permanent basis here.
In an effort to draw a line in the sand between himself and the departed manager, he made some bold decisions. He won’t be the first coach to overthink a big game — nor the last.
In Uche Ikpeazu, Hearts had a striker who almost came to represent the Levein era. Physical and unplayable on his day, the bustling striker terrorised Helander in a 1-1 draw between these teams at Tynecastle the other week. Bizarrely, it wasn’t enough to land him a place in the starting line-up in the new era.
The sight of a Hearts starting XI featuring Steven MacLean and Craig Wighton signalled a new sheriff in town, Gerrard admitting the absence of Ikpeazu was a ‘surprise’. Some games are won the minute the team sheet appears. This was one of them.
MacLean’s contribution amounted to a booking after 23 minutes. He was hooked before he was red carded 15 minutes later.
Glenn Whelan had already succumbed to injury and the need to throw on Andrew Irving and Ikpeazu left MacPhee two subs down before half-time, by which point his side were also a goal behind.
The pre-match plan to give Steven Naismith and Jamie Walker a run out as impact replacements was already shredded. Asked if hindsight might have prompted him to pick a different team, McPhee said: ‘I’m not sure. Steven (MacLean) played a very important role in that system in the Scottish Cup final.
‘He understands that role. The plan was that Steven was on the pitch, we kept the game tight in the early stages and then we introduced players who can affect the game more in the attacking end.
‘We knew that down the stretch it’s difficult for Uche at times with the amount of work he would have to do. We were only one minute away from getting to half-time.’
A single goal was a measly reward for Rangers’ efforts in the first half. It needed a timely intervention from reliable Hearts defender Michael Smith to prevent Morelos finishing a deft James Tavernier centre after 17 minutes. When Hearts keeper Joel Pereira then blocked a thudding left-foot strike from the influential
Jack, it was a question of when, not if, the opening goal was coming. Smith blocked a low netbound Glen Kamara strike from 16 yards, while Tavernier was denied when Pereira pushed an angled shot round the post. The arrival of Ikpeazu became unavoidable when MacLean — already booked by referee John Beaton — incensed Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor with a late sliding challenge. With less than half the game gone, MacPhee heeded the danger signs. Had the Hearts interim boss made it to half-time goalless, with a chance to regroup, he’d have taken it. Even that didn’t go his way. Kent came close to the opener in 42 minutes when he cut inside Sean Clare and Irving before firing a right-foot shot against the outside of the upright. Just as the board went up for added time, Rangers claimed the lead with a goal of ridiculous ease.
From a probing corner Kent fed Morelos on the right side of the area. Usually the finisher, the Colombian turned provider with a cross into the centre for Helander to stroll unchallenged through the Hearts defence and sidefoot the simplest goal he’ll ever score into the net from ten yards.
For MacPhee, the options to change things were limited. Despite a lack of football, Naismith was the obvious option. The matter became academic within two minutes of the restart when a 19th goal of the season for Morelos proved even simpler than the opener for Helander.
Tavernier squared a miscued Sheyi Ojo header across the face of goal for an easy Morelos tap-in. With that, the game was done.
Hearts tried to place doubt in Rangers minds. From a Ryotaro Meshino corner, Ikpeazu powered a header at goal, Jack blocking three yards out. From the resultant corner, Wighton headed wide.
The sight of the reliable Smith limping from the field after 53 minutes gave MacPhee no option. If Hearts were going down they would do it with Naismith and Ikpeazu on the pitch. Too little, too late was the cry.
Committed to chasing the game, with a threadbare, rejigged defence, the Edinburgh side were always vulnerable to the loss of more goals. Morelos smashed a ferocious drive off the junction of crossbar and upright and Hearts breathed again. It was merely delaying the inevitable.
Rangers killed it after 62 minutes. Signed for £7million, injury has curtailed Kent’s ability to justify a sizeable fee in Scottish terms. Leaving full-back Aaron Hickey for dead, before cutting the ball back perfectly for Morelos to slam home his second of the match, the ex-Liverpool player’s final contribution merited the standing ovation which came when he made way for Joe Aribo minutes later.
An offside flag against Jack denied Morelos his hat-trick in 69 minutes. With 20 minutes to play and Hearts being run ragged, the only comfort for the Gorgie side was damage limitation. In truth, it could have finished anything.