Rangers draw ends Hearts' hopes of third place

Last updated on .From the section Scottish Premiership

Rangers ended Hearts' hopes of claiming third place in the Scottish Premiership after an entertaining draw to finish the season unbeaten at Ibrox.

Todd Cantwell and Fashion Sakala scored either side of half time after defensive mistakes from Hearts, as Rangers looked set to give Allan McGregor, Alfredo Morelos, and Scott Arfield the ideal Ibrox farewell.

But substitute Garang Kuol scored a stoppage-time leveller for Hearts, who go into their final match against Hibernian only needing to avoid defeat to finish fourth, which would earn a place in the Europa Conference League qualifiers.

But it is ultimately disappointing for the club to miss out on third place which, as long as Celtic win the Scottish Cup, will earn guaranteed European group-stage football and a bounty of at least £4m.
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Missing out is even more galling because they had a 10-point lead over Aberdeen at the end of January, only for a run of poor form to coincide with the Pittodrie side's winning streak.

That cost Robbie Neilson his job, and Naismith has done his bet to salvage things, particularly by beating Aberdeen at the weekend, and they got the perfect start at Ibrox too.

A simple throw-in was poorly dealt with by Rangers and Shankland nodded home, and eventually got his 28th goal of the season after a VAR check for offside.

The visitors set about adding to that lead and Josh Ginnelly was denied by McGregor, but slowly Rangers worked their way back into the game.

Michael Beale's side wanted to maintain their unbeaten home record, give a proper send off to some of their long-serving players, and win all of their post-split fixtures for the first time.

Cantwell stroked in his sixth Rangers goal on the break after James Hill slipped trying to intercept Morelos' pass, and then just after the break Toby Sibbick failed to deal with a long ball and allowed Sakala in to stab his team in front.

Rangers piled on the pressure and Morelos and Arfield both missed chances to score on their final games at Ibrox, and Hearts kept at it and got their reward.

Kuol finished past McGregor from close range after some scrappy Rangers defending to earn a draw, but given that was effectively the last kick of the game, it was not enough to keep the race for third alive.