Gordon plays down suggestion Europa final will impact Rangers
CRAIG GORDON has dismissed suggestions that Rangers’ involvement in the Europa League final next week could increase Hearts’ chances of winning the Scottish Cup.
The Glasgow club are set to take on Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in Seville a week on Wednesday – just three days before they play their Edinburgh rivals at Hampden.
However, Gordon saw this month how James Tavernier and his team-mates defeated his former club Celtic after extratime in the semi-final just three days after being taken to extratime by Braga.
The Scotland internationalist believes Rangers, who play at Tynecastle in their final cinch Premiership match on Saturday, will be formidable opponents regardless of what happens in the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
Asked how playing in the Europa League final would impact on Rangers in the Scottish Cup final, he said: “Who knows? We’ll only know after the event.
“But they have done fantastically well to get there. It’s a major achievement and you’d want to see them go there and do well for Scottish football.
“Potentially, to win a European trophy, that would be amazing for everybody in Scottish football, for our coefficient, for Champions League places, for all the things that go with it.
“We want to do as well as we can as a nation at international level and also our club teams doing well, too. If they manage to win a European final, they would deserve to have a
few beers! Seriously, though, you can play it out two different ways. It could go to extra time, penalties. Travel, so many things come into it. But it boils down to the fact they are a good team. They came back from extra time in Europe to beat Celtic in the semi-final three days later, so they are a fit team and very capable of putting up with the schedule.
“I think we are still in a good place. We’ve obviously had a number of injuries and we are trying to get boys back for the final. We are preparing as best we can to get a full squad for Hampden.”
Gordon, who received the Scottish Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year award at a dinner in Glasgow last night, believes Hearts are well placed heading into the final despite the 4-1 defeat they suffered against Celtic at Parkhead at the weekend.
“We certainly started like
we meant business and took the lead,” he said. “We lost two goals in the first half when, on another day, we could easily have gone in 1-0 up as the two goals might not have counted. But, for whatever reason, they did and we have to react.
“It’s always difficult when they get back into it and the atmosphere built. But we did and were well in the game having our best spell when we lost the third one, so there were spells that were good and other spells to go away and improve on for the rest of this season and next season as well.”
Gordon added: “I don’t think Saturday’s match will have any bearing on what happens at Hampden. It’s another preparation game for both teams and we’ll try to win.
“We were 10 unbeaten before Celtic and we want to get back to winning ways. We have a couple before the final to do that.”