Heart of Midlothian

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All season, Cyriel Dessers has copped criticism from both pundits and Rangers fans alike, with questions raised particularly over his ability in front of goal.

However, he now has 19 goals in all competitions, and he came up with the goods when it mattered on the biggest of stages.

The good and bad of the Nigerian were both on show at Hampden. He picked up wonderful positions, roughed up opposition defenders, while also missing several chances alongside his two goals.

Todd Cantwell also deserves praise for the way he impacted the game. He constantly found pockets of space and set up both the goals.

Steven Naismith said the defeat highlighted Hearts' "immaturity", and he will be deeply frustrated by their profligacy on the day.

They have kept pace with Celtic and Rangers in terms of league points in the second half of this season, but have now lost all five of their meetings with Rangers this season.

It is a record Naismith will be determined to end as soon as possible.

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Hearts head coach Steven Naismith tells BBC Scotland: "It's really frustrating. Got off to a terrible start. It's not good enough. From that moment to the second goal, we played a lot of goof stuff, created a lot of good chances.

"Then, it's another moment that takes the tie away from you when we had a chance of putting them under a lot of pressure. On the day we gave up poor goals. You could tell our immaturity in the final third, the decision making, the three, four, five good situations we were in, we never made the right choice. That's the part that let us down today.

"It'll come with experience. From the summer until now, we've come a long way. We've changed the way we play, we do a lot differently and we've made good progress.

"That calmness comes. Today wasn't our day to have it but we'll learn from it. We're a young squad, we've done loads of good stuff. These moments hurt because we feel it's a missed opportunity.

"We can be really frustrated but the bigger picture is we've made big strides. We came up against one of the best teams in the league, played good football to break them down and make opportunities. Then it's decision making, that's the biggest thing that cost us today."

Four changes for Rangers and one of them jumps off the page.

Connor Goldson has been dropped and will be replaced at centre-back by Leon Balogun.

Elsewhere, Mohamed Diomande returns in midfield, as do attacking duo Rabbi Matondo and Cyriel Dessers.

Tom Lawrence, Fabio Silva and Kemar Roofe drop to the bench. No Ridvan Yilmaz in the squad again.

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Three Hearts switches following their comeback win against Livingston last weekend.

Stephen Kingsley replaces Alex Cochrane at left-back, while Alan Forrest and Kenneth Vargas come into the attack.

Barrie McKay and Yutaro Oda are the two forwards who drop to the bench as Craig Gordon continues in goal.

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Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Souttar, Balogun, Sterling, Lundstram, Diomande, Cantwell, Matondo, Sima, Dessers.

Substitutes: McCrorie, Goldson, Silva, Lawrence, Dowell, Roofe, Barisic, Raskin, McCausland.

Hearts: Gordon, Atkinson, Kent, Rowles, Kingsley, Grant, Devlin, Baningime, Forrest, Shankland, Vargas.

Substitutes: Clark, Oda, McKay, Cochrane, Denholm, Tait, Fraser, Tagawa, Lembikisa.

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• Hearts have never beaten Rangers at Hampden, though did prevail over the Govan side in the 1998 Scottish Cup final at Celtic Park.

• Rangers last won the Scottish Cup in 2022, beating Hearts in the final in extra time. It ended a 13-year wait to lift the trophy and marked the 34th triumph in the competition.

• Kenneth Vargas has scored in all three of Hearts' previous rounds in this year's Scottish Cup, making him the club's top scorer in the competition (three goals).

• James Tavernier has scored in both Rangers' visits to Hampden this season. The Ibrox captain's first came from the spot as his side saw off Hearts in the League Cup semi-final, before scoring the winner in the final against Aberdeen.

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There were no doubts about this, was there?

As the Premiership's top scorer, it seemed inevitable that Lawrence Shankland would be named in the Professional Footballers' Association Scotland team of the year.

His fellow top-flight players had little choice but to stick his name down after 21 goals in the league and 28 in all competitions.

While the Scotland striker leads the line, Hearts fans may feel aggrieved at the absence of defender Frankie Kent, with Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales taking the two centre-half spots.

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Former Hearts striker Steven MacLean insists Steven Naismith's side know how to hurt the "big" teams ahead of their Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers.

The Tynecastle side have beat Celtic twice this season, but haven't prevailed over the Ibrox outfit in over four years.

"He's [Naismith] got the players there to go and hurt Rangers," MacLean said.

"They've got good pace in the wide areas and obviously the graft and the guile of Lawrence Shankland who's a top goalscorer as well.

"He'll be thinking of ways he can hurt Rangers.

"When you look at Hearts' season, they're the third best team in the country, they've got good results against the big sides so I'm sure they know they've got the players there and the harmony to get a result."

Striker Lawrence Shankland will lead Hearts' hopes in the Scottish Cup last four against Rangers at Hampden on Sunday having worked at Hampden for the Tynecastle side's 2012 final triumph over Hibs.

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Lawrence Shankland says this Hearts side have the chance to go down as heroes by winning the Scottish Cup.

The Tynecastle side are preparing to face a wounded Rangers at Hampden on Sunday in the second semi-final meeting between the teams this season.

The Scotland striker isn't getting ahead of himself, admitting they face a difficult task to reach this year's final, while still harbouring hopes of lifting the trophy.

“It would be amazing,” Shankland said. “You’re allowed to dream when you’re at this stage.

“The semi-final, one step away from a final, it’s obviously something you’re looking at. But you need to concentrate on the task at hand first and if you can get by that, you can continue to dream.

“All trophies help the status of not just me but the full team. You go down as a team that gets remembered if you can get your hands on a trophy, so the boys will have that in their heads and that’s what we’ll look to do.

“It’s a great opportunity for us, it’s one we are all looking forward to and we need to go into it with a real positive outlook.”

As they prepare to go head to head in the semi-finals on Sunday, watch the previous Scottish Cup meeting of Hearts and Rangers when the Ibrox side prevailed 2-0 in extra time to lift the trophy in 2022.

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Hearts have a "really good chance" of progressing to the Scottish Cup final, says former Tynecastle striker Lee Miller.

However, the ex-Scotland international warned that Steven Naismith's side can't afford to give Rangers a fast start at Hampden, as they did against Livingston last weekend.

"In terms of Hearts' chances, I think they've got a really good chance," Miller told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"They've got Lawrence Shankland as well, who scores goals. But if you look outwith that, his work outside the box as well. It's not just scoring goals, the amount of goals he's involved in. He's a proper team player.

"But the players round about him are contributing as well. I think they are getting into the game in really good form.

"I watched the game at the weekend against Livingston. They gave them a two-goal head start. They can't afford to do that against Rangers at the weekend.

"If they do that, I don't know if they'll get back from that. But the way they finish the game after the two goals that they give Livingston, they were really strong and they created a lot of chances."

Hearts manager Steven Naismith believes striker Lawrence Shankland deserves to be named Scotland's player of the year, with 28 goals club goals already in the bag. (Daily Record), external

Read the rest of Friday's Scottish gossip.

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Hearts head coach Steven Naismith challenged his side to keep their cool in the heat of battle when they face Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-finals on Sunday.

The Tynecastle outfit have lost all four of their meetings with Rangers this season, but Naismith believes they are more than capable of ending that particular record.

"We need to be better in possession than we have been in games against Rangers recently," he said. "If we are, we can cause them a lot of problems.

"That's the one part of the games we've not done well enough. We've worked on how we do that, and we believe we'll go into the game with a good plan to win it.

"It's hard work getting to this point. The nerves, the adrenaline, the sense of opportunity - all these key moments happen through the 90 minutes. It's about having calm heads at the right times to take advantage of those moments.

"We've learned from our mistakes in the past. Hopefully we do that again on Sunday and cause more problems to Rangers than we have in past games."

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Hearts head coach Steven Naismith has been talking to the media before his side's Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers on Sunday.

Here are the key points from his press conference:

• Naismith says he's not massively surprised by Rangers' recent slump in form. Points to the players that have been at Ibrox for a number of years and have failed to win trophies.

• Doesn't think Rangers' drop off has happened suddenly. Says they "carried luck" during their long unbeaten run.

• Says that the recent comeback win over Livingston was a direct result of "belief in what we're doing".

• Naismith expects a fairly open game at Hampden between two teams that create plenty of chances.

• Challenged Hearts to be better in possession that they have been against Rangers in previous meetings this season.

• Thinks Hearts can put pressure on Rangers if they have "calm heads" and "make the right choices".

• There are no new injury concerns going into the game.

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Lawrence Shankland insists his sole focus is helping Hearts reach the Scottish Cup final, rather than the prospect of playing for Scotland at this summer's Euros.

The 28-year-old has scored 28 goals in all competitions this season, and he says he wants to help Hearts improve on their previous Hampden outing this season, when they lost 3-1 to Rangers in the Viaplay Cup semi-final.

“Of course it could maybe help [my Scotland chances] in the bigger picture but I think the sole focus has to be on trying to win the semi-final,” Shankland said.

“I think you would probably be silly to have your mindset anywhere else than just trying to win that game and get the opportunity to play in a Scottish Cup final.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do that and put up a better show than the last time we played at Hampden.”

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Scotland

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Ex-Hearts captain Steven Pressley believes there’s "no reason why" his former club can’t shock Rangers in Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final.

Pressley, who started his career at Ibrox and lifted the trophy for Hearts in 2006, feels his ex-team could be catching the Govan side just the right time.

"For the first time since [Philippe] Clement’s come in to Rangers, they’re going through a period of uncertainty," Pressley said.

"Just now you’ve got what would appear to be a very confident Hearts side, so I think it makes for a really intriguing game.

"I hope Hearts can go on and win, but obviously it’s a huge challenge for them."

The only problem for those of a Hearts persuasion is their recent record against Rangers - the Edinburgh club haven’t beaten the men from Ibrox since early 2020.

Clement has already faced them four times in just over five months, winning the lot with an aggregate score of 11-2.

But Hearts have beaten league leaders and cup holders Celtic twice already this season, including a 2-0 victory in Glasgow, and have comfortably established themselves as Scotland's third force this term.

"It’s not that Hearts are not there on merit," Pressley adds. "They’re very much a team that’s performing well and getting results.

"They’re in good shape and in good form and they’ve shown recently the ability to come from behind, so they should go into the game with real confidence.

"They’ve already demonstrated the ability to beat one of the Old Firm this season. They beat Celtic at Celtic Park so they should take great confidence from that.

"I’ve got a good feeling about Hearts just now, I really do."

There are big calls to be made as Hearts head to Hampden on Sunday bidding to reach the Scottish Cup final at Rangers' expense.

Should Zander Clark return in goals to replace Craig Gordon? Who gets the nod in the engine room where the game could be won and lost?

Put yourself in Steven Naismith's shoes and choose your Jambos XI for the big occasion here.