HEARTS have never beaten Rangers at Hampden in their 150-year history, but they will fancy their chances of causing a Scottish Cup semi-final upset on Sunday.
The astonishing Hampden hoodoo is a remarkable, embarrassing stat for the Jambos who have also come under fire this week for struggling to sell their tickets after getting a 50-50 split.
But Steven Naismith's side have enjoyed a very decent season and will be desperate to pull off a real statement result against Philippe Clement's side, who have been far from consistent themselves recently.
Hearts roared back from two goals down last week at home to doomed Livingston to win 4-2 to follow up last week's win at St Mirren.
Third place and Europe is in the bag for the capital side, but they need to lay a glove on Rangers.
The Ibrox side were defeated for the first time in their history last week by Ross County and followed that up with another woeful display at Dundee in a goalless draw.
For the first time, the Belgian manager has been criticised for strange team selections and it will be interesting to see how they react.
But Rangers are the only team who can still win the treble and they are expected to return to Hampden for the Final next month.
How the bookies view it
Hearts started the week at 10/1 and have been backed into 8/1 now with McBookie.com. Rangers have drifted but are still heavy odds-on at 3/10 with bet365 and the draw is 24/5 with UniBet.
Rangers are 1/7 to reach with the Final with bet365 and Hearts are 5/1 with UniBet.
Recent head to heads
It doesn't make good reading if you are a Hearts fan. Not only have Rangers won all four meetings this season including a one-sided League Cup semi-final at the same venue, they have won 11 out of the last 12 meetings with the other one a draw.
Players to watch
Plenty of punters will be on the old favourite of Rangers penalty and set-piece taker James Tavernier to score anytime at 9/5 with UniBet.
Lawrence Shankland scored his 28th goal of a superb season from the penalty spot last week and also had two assists. The Hearts captain and talisman is 5/2 with UniBet to score anytime and that looks excellent value.
Anything else catch the eye?
Hearts produced the good and the bad last week – they were so poor in defending at home to a team like Livingston, but were superb on the fast counter-attack.
They have been somewhat disrespectfully written off here and while that is understandable because of their dire record against Rangers for a long time, this is their best chance to make history and punters have latched on to them this week.
Rangers' defence have looked leggy and they are lacing creativity in attack and Hearts can score and probably more than once with predatory striker Shankland better than any forward Rangers have on the park. Back them to score over 1.5 goals at 17/4 with McBookie.com
There should be goals here at both ends with two suspect defences and Hearts look a far better team that the ones who meekly crumbled in the League Cup semi-final in November. Back over 3.5 goals in what could be a thriller at 7/5 with Paddy Power.
This Scottish Cup match between Rangers and Hearts will be played on Apr 21, 2024 and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best Rangers vs Hearts prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
