Relaxed Lawrence Shankland takes Hearts hopes in stride: previous Rangers regrets, cup final drought and who will hit penalties

Such sharpness will be required from the Jambos captain and talisman on Sunday afternoon when Hearts take on Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. This will be the fifth time that the two teams have met this season and Hearts have lost every single one – including a League Cup semi-final at the same venue in November. The Gers are the only top-flight team yet to be downed by the Tynecastle outfit this season. They came close at Ibrox in October when two stoppage-time goals floored them 2-1, but other than that they have been second best to the Glasgow club in the performance stakes.

Confidence is building at Hearts, though. Since that 3-1 defeat at Hampden, Hearts have embarked on an excellent run of form that has all but secured third place in the Premiership. They have triumphed at Celtic Park, at Easter Road and won matches in a variety of difference ways. Front and centre has been Shankland, a monster in attack for the boys in maroon. The 28-year-old has scored 28 times in all competitions this season. Two of them have come against Rangers. He is now a stick-on for the Scotland Euro 2024 squad, and may even lead the line in the opener against Germany.

It may therefore come as a surprise to learn that a player of such prowess has never played in national cup final. He came close earlier in the season but before that, his only experience was during the pandemic when his Dundee United team were soundly beaten at Hampden. “The one I got close to was the Hibs one during Covid," says Shankland. “I didn’t enjoy it to be honest. The stadium was empty, it wasn’t the same.”

That won’t be the case on Sunday afternoon. Hearts have not quite sold out their full allocation but there will be very few seats left for what should be a mouthwatering clash. Shankland knows what is at stake. “You want to be in the big cups but I haven’t had the opportunity in terms of the clubs I have been at,” he admits. “The teams I have played for haven’t had a real chance, it’s difficult when you’re playing in the lower leagues or for a lower end team. This is an opportunity and if I can get to a final, great. We’ve done well in the cups to get this far. Semi-finals are always difficult games, there’s lots of pressure around them. One moment of magic or madness can decide it. You need a little bit of luck as well. Hopefully things can fall for us.”

Shankland, of course, is no stranger to Hampden, be it on club or country duty. “My Hampden record is brilliant actually,” he laughs “I used to play for Queen’s Park ... I’ve won loads of games there! No, I’m kidding. My record there probably isn’t the best, but I think I’ve only been two or three times in terms of the cups.

“You watch games on telly when you’re younger and obviously you think it would be great to play at Hampden in a cup final. But your career can take you in different directions at times. You never know. You can’t take these kind of opportunities for granted. They don’t come around too often. It’s back-to-back semi-finals for us in both cup competitions this season. Hopefully we can go a step further this time and reach the final.”

Hearts’ most recent meeting with Rangers ended in a 5-0 drubbing at Ibrox, a rare blip from them in 2024. Philippe Clement’s men were excellent that day. There are more regrets surrounding the League Cup tie, when Hearts were meek and only netted late on via a Shankland penalty. “The feeling of regret when you came off the pitch was probably the biggest thing,” recalls Shankland. “We felt like we didn't really give it a go. Whether that be down to our gameplan not working or just didn't feel right or it was a wee bit off. I think that is the first thing we will look to improve on. Try and put a bit of a stamp on the game and give ourselves a chance of going through. We felt as a group we didn't give ourselves the best chance that day.”

Their opponents arrive at Hampden after a difficult week. Their Premiership title hopes have been dented by a surprise defeat by Ross County and then a 0-0 draw at Dundee on Wednesday. Rangers fans booed their team off the pitch at Dens Park and those two performances have led to chatter that this could be Hearts’ moment, a team that has never beaten the Gers at Hampden in its 150-year history.

“People always create a narrative on the outside that it is always good to play teams when they are not at their best,” says Shankland. “They have not become a bad team overnight. This might be a good break for them to get away from the league and play in the cup. Of course, it is better to play them now rather than when they are firing on all cylinders but I wouldn't act as if it is going to be an easier game than it would usually be.

“You’d have watched the game against Dundee on Wednesday night. I don’t think any of us are thinking: ‘Oh, I hope Rangers get beat here’. It doesn’t make a massive difference in terms of our approach to the game. But obviously some teams have had success against them recently. There might be some clues there for us to look at and analyse. Hopefully we can maybe look to implement some of those things.

“There is a lot of pressure on the game, for both teams. Rangers' last two results will add to that due to the scrutiny they will be under in the league. We can't look into that too much. We can maybe use it to our advantage at the time of the game and if the pressure increases throughout the game it could help us. But it is not something we can go and rely on.”

It’s not just about Rangers’ recent form, though. Under pressure in December, Hearts manager Steven Naismith has galvanised his team since he called them out for being “bullied” in a 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen. The response from his players has been emphatic. “Results and form breeds belief,” says Shankland. “As players, that’s what you take forward when you’ve been on a good run. We’ve been playing well in the majority of games over a large part of the season now. We’ve become fairly consistent. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still been a couple of dodgy results in there at times. But, overall, we’ve been pretty good. We can take confidence from that and from our league position as well.”

Shankland’s last visit to Hampden in Hearts colours saw him net from 12 yards past Rangers keeper Jack Butland. Since then, though, he’s missed a few and now shares penalty responsibilities with Jorge Grant. The midfielder allowed his captain to take the most recent one, last weekend against Livingston. “I’m not saying!” exclaims Shankland on who might hit one on Sunday. “He came over and said: ‘Do you want your goal?’ He’s a nicer guy than me because I wouldn’t have done that! It was good he was confident I would put it away. It was out of the blue, I was quite prepared for him to hit it. We’ll see, someone else might hit it this weekend. [Stephen] Kingsley, maybe! It’s a secret.”

Whoever gets the chances, Hearts will need to be spot-on if they are to get that elusive win over Rangers on the biggest of stages.