RANGERS and Hearts meet in the second Viaplay Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday, just a week after their controversial league showdown at Ibrox.
Last week, Hearts grabbed an early lead through Lawrence Shankland, who was the best player on the pitch and looked certain to hold on for their first win at Ibrox for nine years, with Rangers missing a penalty.
But then came that VAR intervention that so infuriated Hearts and this time James Tavernier made no mistake from the penalty spot. Danilo headed in the winner in the nine minutes of added time to leave Jambos boss Steven Naismith raging.
Both claimed morale-boosting midweek league wins too.
Rangers produced surely their best performance of the season by wiping out a Dundee side who had been enjoying an excellent campaign in an emphatic 5-0 win at Dens Park.
And although Hearts needed a late winner to see off Livingston, they were utterly dominant and should have won by more goals.
It's all set up for a cracker at a sold-out Hampden.
How the bookies view it
Rangers are solid favourites at around the 1/2 mark although you can get a spot of 8/15 with Paddy Power. Hearts can be backed at 6/1 with McBookie.com and the draw is 7/2 with UniBet.
Recent head to heads
As stated, the sides fought it out last week and that late, late show handed Rangers a 2-1 home win. Rangers are unbeaten in ten meetings between the sides and have won 16 of the 21 meetings in the League Cup.
Hearts haven't beaten Rangers in this competition since 1965.
Players to watch
James Tavernier had an eventful match last week when he missed and then scored a penalty. Penalties and Rangers never seem to be far away and the skipper is 9/4 with UniBet to score anytime.
Lawrence Shankland also netted last week and terrorised the Rangers defence. He is 13/5 to net anytime with bet365.
Anything else catch the eye?
This could be another entertaining encounter. Rangers weren't very good in all honesty last week and Hearts looked like they had comfortably dealt with a team who ran out of ideas…until that dramatic finale.
But Rangers must have taken a real injection of confidence from that as their midweek destruction of Dundee showed. Even the much-maligned Sam Lammers and Cyrie Dessers looked decent.
However, Hearts can make a real game of this and the call is the 5/2 on a Rangers win and both teams to score with Paddy Power.
You often find bad blood brewing when teams meet in consecutive weeks especially when a game had an ending like that. Nick Walsh has flashed three red cards in 12 games this season and is worth a dabble at 4/1 with bet365 to show another one.
This Scottish League Cup match between Hearts and Rangers will be played on Nov 5, 2023 and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best Hearts vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
