Rangers' virtuoso display

Hearts 0 Rangers 4

STUART BATHGATE AT TYNECASTLE

IF THIS was Rangers at their most vulnerable, Hearts will be dreading meeting them at full strength. The champions may have been missing Ronald de Boer, Fernando Ricksen and Craig Moore, not to mention those players who have been sold recently, but they made light of such absences with a commanding display which took them back to the top of the table.

Rangers had to battle hard in the first half as Hearts tried to maintain a high pace, but their first goal a minute before the interval was critical, and the second not long into the second half killed off the match. Forced to chase the game, the home team left ever greater gaps at the back, and were punished late on with two further goals.

Speaking of gaps, there was simply nothing here to suggest that Hearts, who are still a couple of points clear of the pack in third place, have it in them to get closer to the Old Firm than they were able to do last season. That is not intended to denigrate their abilities; rather, it is a straightforward reading of the evidence.

This was not quite Hearts at their best, but they played decently enough, and with the speed and width which normally troubles most of their domestic opponents, but, a handful of penalty claims aside, they simply did not have enough to trouble Rangers where it mattered most.

Alex McLeish’s side showed an attractive blend of organisation and invention, the first quality being exemplified by the composed Michael Ball and Maurice Ross at the back, the latter by Emerson and Mikel Arteta in midfield.

Throw in the ever-present menace of Peter Lovenkrands and the languid artistry of Nuno Capucho, and the result was an all-round triumph.

Long before the end, the teams looked leagues apart - which they are, of course, in every sense but the formal one of both belonging to the SPL.

For Rangers, it was a satisfying way to round off a week which had also brought them a European win over Stuttgart: for Hearts, it was a game to be shrugged off quickly, so they can get down to the business of preparing for their own European venture, Wednesday night’s home UEFA Cup tie against Zeljeznicar.

Statistically at least, Craig Levein will be able to tell his squad that they should write this one off, as it was the first time this season they have lost more than one goal in a game. To be precise, it was only the second match in which they had lost a goal, the first having been their league defeat at the hands of Hibs. Such a proud record inspired the stadium announcer, on reading out the teams before the match, to declare that Hearts had "the best defence in the UK". In one sense this was accurate, but it was still tempting fate to boast about the matter before a game against one of the better strike forces in the country.

All the same, it was certainly the Hearts attack who started the sprightlier, with Mark de Vries having two penalty claims denied in the opening six minutes. Both involved Zurab Khizanishvili, and on the first occasion at least, the former Dundee player clearly made deliberate contact with the big Dutchman.

Referee Stuart Dougal was unimpressed, however, as he was on three further occasions when Hearts players went down in the box. None was a stonewall spot-kick, but the law of averages suggests that one or two of every five such incidents should go in the attacker’s favour. Still, just because a coin comes up heads four times in a row, there is no greater likelihood that the fifth time it will be tails. Each occasion is a separate case, and Dougal had the composure to treat them in that way.

Hearts had a couple of decent chances to open the scoring from open play in the first 20 minutes, both falling to de Vries. First, a close-range shot was blocked, and then, after Scott Severin had headed on a corner, the striker blasted over from near the penalty spot.

The longer the half wore on, though, the more dangerous Rangers looked on the break, particularly through Capucho, who was being left in an awful lot of space out on the right. Three times in four minutes just past the half-hour mark, the former Porto player broke free and set up colleagues, but first Emerson could only find the side-netting as he slid in at the far post, and the other two were dealt with by Tepi Moilanen.

Having tried the roundabout route to goal, Rangers decided to become more direct, and were rewarded just before half-time. Fed by Michael Mols, Emerson found Shota Arveladze in space, and the Georgian was able to turn unopposed before firing his shot just inside Moilanen’s left post.

Rangers began the second half where they had left off, playing with the increasing confidence of a team that knows they have the game in their grasp. In 51 minutes, that grasp became a stranglehold as a cross from Ross - delivered despite the attendance of three defenders - was headed in from point-blank range by Lovenkrands.

The points won, Rangers began to show some real virtuoso touches, and it was no surprise when they added to their tally. Arveladze was the first to react when a blistering shot from Emerson came back off the woodwork, and his tap-in made it three.

The fact that the match was so obviously won made it all the more baffling when, 15 minutes from time, Capucho indulged himself with a ludicrous show of simulation. He collapsed in apparent agony following a tangle of legs, bounced back up angrily after Patrick Kisnorbo bent down to say something to him - and then collapsed again, having presumably remembered in the nick of time that he was meant to be undergoing a near-death experience.

It was to a real injury that Rangers owed their last goal - a collision between Moilanen and Egil Ostenstad that made them both miss a cross from Capucho. The ball came off Steven Pressley, and Lovenkrands was there to blast in his second from a yard out.

Weakened? Vulnerable? Not on this showing, they’re not.

Hearts: Moilanen, Maybury, Pressley, Webster, Kisnorbo, MacFarlane, Severin, Stamp, Hamill (Kirk 53), de Vries (McKenna 87), Wyness (Valois 62). Subs not used: Gordon, Boyack.

Rangers: Klos, Ross, Berg, Khizanishvili, Ball, Lovenkrands, Arteta, Emerson, Capucho, Arveladze, Mols (Ostenstad 75). Subs not used: McGregor, Malcolm, Vanoli, Hughes.

Taken from the Scotsman