De Boer sinks Hearts as Rangers reach final

Hearts 0

Alex McLeish’s side will take on either Celtic or Dundee United in next month’s final, with the second semi due to take place at Hampden tomorrow night.

Hearts coach Craig Levein’s game plan was to frustrate Rangers for the opening 20 minutes or so and the plan worked in so far as it was not until the 27th minute that de Boer actually opened the scoring.

Former Jambo Neil McCann, whose every touch had been booed by the Hearts fans, crossed from the left to Fernando Ricksen at the back post.

The Dutchman might have attempted to have scored himself but instead nodded the ball across goal for his compatriot to apply a simple finish with his own head.

Barry Ferguson forced Hearts goalkeeper Tepi Moilanen into an early parry from a free-kick and from the rebound Michael Mols fired into the side-netting.

The amount of quality football before the break had not been overwhelming and continued to dip steadily after the restart.

Bad-tempered incidents were becoming much more frequent however and the first of note was when Mols and Alan Maybury clashed after challenging for a high ball.

That incident went unpunished but when Ricksen felled Mahe he was booked and the same fate befell Arteta and Hearts skipper Steven Pressley after they had clashed in the centre circle, which had prompted a mercifully brief melee.

At last some football broke out and Moilanen kept his side in the game when he made a parry from a fierce Ricksen drive. The loose ball was picked up by McCann but instead of laying the ball back to one of two blue shirts arriving in the box he played it straight to the feet of a defender.

Hearts pressed forward as the minutes ticked away but it was not to be as Valois saw another potentially dangerous effort end up in Klos’ hands.

The margin of Rangers’ victory may have been narrow but Hearts had been second best all game.

HEARTS: Moilanen, Maybury, Pressley, Webster, Mahe (Kirk 86), Stamp (McKenna 66), Severin, MacFarlane, Valois, de Vries, Wales.

RANGERS: Klos, Ross, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Ricksen, Ferguson, Arteta, de Boer, Mols (Caniggia 73), McCann.

Referee: M. McCurry (Scotland).