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Rangers were brought crashing back down from their continental high as Hearts’ Oliver Bozanic dumped Steven Gerrard’s team out of the William Hill Scottish Cup.<\/p>\nRangers were brought crashing back down from their continental high as Hearts’ Oliver Bozanic dumped Steven Gerrard’s team out of the William Hill Scottish Cup.<\/p>\n
The Ibrox outfit were hoping Wednesday’s stunning Europa League win over Braga would spark a turnaround in domestic fortunes.<\/p>\n
But instead they face another trophyless season unless they can battle through from the last 16 in Europe after Bozanic handed Daniel Stendel’s Ladbrokes Premiership basement boys a shock 1-0 win at Tynecastle.<\/p>\n
The big news before kick-off was the absence of Rangers’ top-scorer Alfredo Morelos after he was disciplined for returning late from a trip to Colombia.<\/p>\n
Referee Steven McLean was center-stage with a string of bizarre decisions which infuriated both sides.<\/p>\n
But Hearts were not complaining at full-time as they marched into the Hampden semi-final with their second win over Gers in the space of a month.<\/p>\n
Morelos was expected to return after being suspended for Wednesday’s stunning win in Portugal.<\/p>\n
But instead the Colombian was dropped after upsetting Gerrard by reporting back late from an agreed trip to his homeland to deal with a family matter.<\/p>\n
It was the last thing the Ibrox boss needed as Gers looked to capitalize on the euphoria of their midweek victory, which sets up a clash with Bundesliga giants Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
With Florian Kamberi cup-tied and Jermain Defoe only fit enough for the bench, Greg Stewart took over up front while Liam Boyce – January’s match-winner – was also a substitute after a bout of illness.<\/p>\n
As if that was not dramatic enough, the 45 minutes which followed were incident-packed.<\/p>\n
There was just 14 minutes gone when John Souttar went down off the ball, clutching the same Achilles he ruptured back in 2017, with Clevid Dikamona replacing the defender.<\/p>\n
Gers were lucky not to then lose Ryan Jack when he lunged in late on Michael Smith.<\/p>\n
From the resulting free-kick, Steven Naismith saw a header tipped over by his old Ibrox team-mate Allan McGregor before Loic Damour’s scrambled effort was blocked by James Tavernier.<\/p>\n
Then came the flashpoints as referee Steven McLean’s control of proceedings evaporated.<\/p>\n
He got his first big call all wrong as he denied Gers a penalty when Ryan Kent found himself flattened by Damour’s bodycheck in the 35th minute, leaving the Gers bench stunned.<\/p>\n
Hearts were just as aggrieved when the official then failed to spot George Edmundson’s blatant penalty-box handball in first-half stoppage-time, instead giving a corner.<\/p>\n
And for a moment it looked like he had given a goal to Damour when the Frenchman used both hands to punch the ball over McGregor from the resulting delivery before belatedly ruling the goal out.<\/p>\n
McLean found himself surrounded as the teams went down the tunnel, with Hearts still arguing over their failed spot-kick appeal and McGregor demanding an explanation why Damour – already on a yellow for tripping Kent – had not been shown a second.<\/p>\n
The four sides of Tynecastle united to let the official know what they thought of him as the teams returned.<\/p>\n
However, in the 58th minute it was only the home faithful making any noise as they erupted when Bozanic’s strike hit the net.<\/p>\n
Tavernier left McGregor in no-man’s land with a poor backwards header from a Conor Washington’s hook and Lewis Moore took full advantage, rounding the keeper before cutting back for the Australian to sweep home.<\/p>\n
Rangers knew their best hope of lifting a trophy this term was slipping away. Kent forced a save from Zdenek Zlamal while Gerrard threw on Ianis Hagi and Defoe to lead his rescue mission.<\/p>\n
But it was Hearts who almost added a second with quarter of an hour left as Naismith poked wide after an Edmundson blunder.<\/p>\n
The young Rangers defender was man of the match in midweek but he then blew the chance to become Rangers’ weekend savior as he headed two glorious front-post opportunities over Zlamal’s goal to leave the path clear for Celtic to wrap up another domestic treble.<\/p>\n