Rangers let a commanding two-goal lead slip away to draw 3-3 with Hearts in the final crucial Premiership game of the season at Tynecastle.
Jambos captain Lawrence Shankland scored his 31st goal of the season for the third-placed home side in the 33rd minute of the game, before Gers winger Ross McCausland equalized in the 52nd minute and midfielder Todd Cantwell finished in similar fashion in the 69th minute.
It looked like three points for Philippe Clement’s side when substitute Fabio Silva scored their third with 11 minutes left, but Jambos substitute Dexter Lembikisa’s volley in the 82nd minute reduced the deficit.
Kyosuke Tagawa, another Gorgie substitute, dramatically equalized in the last of five added minutes, leaving the Light Blues’ Belgian head coach with more questions than answers ahead of next week’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park against three-time league champions Celtic.
Clement named a strong team – he made changes in the second half with an eye on next week’s game, with Abdallah Sima and Dujon Sterling getting minutes – but most notably, 21-year-old left-back Robbie Fraser made his first start .
Hearts boss Steven Naismith made seven changes; only Frankie Kent, Kye Rowles, Alex Cochrane and Cammy Devlin retained their places.
It was a rather gentle start to the afternoon as Hearts goalkeeper Zander Clark saved long-range shots from Mohamed Diomande and Cyriel Dessers and in between Jambos attacker Yutardo Oda shot wide from 25 yards.
In the 13th minute there was a VAR check for a possible Rangers penalty when Kent appeared to want to pull Dessers’ jersey into the penalty area, but play continued.
Dessers should have scored seven minutes later when McCausland outwitted Rowles and created an easy chance, but his tentative shot was saved by Clark.
After Cantwell collected the ball, Shankland went close to scoring from a corner, ran towards a defense-splitting pass from Oda and confidently beat Gers keeper Jack Butland.
Kenneth Vargas got through on another jambos but could only hit the outside of a post, the ball went behind, and at the other end Dessers knocked the ball over the bar from close range but the offside flag was up.
The second half got off to a rocky start but McCausland’s shot went smoothly, the Northern Ireland international skipping past Devlin and curling a shot from 25 meters past Clark into the net which missed the post.
Shankland failed to control the ball when he could have run free and in another stunning performance from Dessers, he headed Scott Wright’s cross over the bar and then shot wide from 16 yards when he had only Clark to beat.
The Rangers pressed for a second and Clark parried a Silva shot well as Cantwell parried the loose ball, which was deflected by a maroon jersey.
But the former Norwich player was unstoppable as he accepted a Dessers pass on the edge of the box and directed the ball past Clark into the corner of the net before earning applause from the small group of traveling fans.
The game became more open in the final stages.
Vargas headed wide from 9 meters, but when McCausland set up for Silva at the other end shortly afterwards, he shot the ball low past the helpless Clark.
Hearts came back and Lembikisa sent in a Vargas cross with some conviction to make the final minutes more exciting.
Gers substitute Kieran Dowell hit the post with a drive, but in the final action of the game, Tagawa managed to capitalize on a shot from Kent, which shot past Butland and sent the home fans away happily.
What the managers said…
Hearts boss Steven Naismith:
“The next three weeks of training camp are probably the biggest part. Both.” [Zander Clark and Craig Gordon] have done everything to show that [Scotland] Managers they are capable and deserve a place in the [Euro 2024] squad. We have two brilliant goalkeepers.
“He can’t be in better shape than when he comes in. He answered a lot of questions in the last international matches.”
“But the next three weeks are important when the coach keeps an eye on all the players on the training pitch every day.
“But Shanks is in brilliant form, full of confidence.
“At the start of the season the question was whether he deserved to be in the squad.
Rangers boss Philippe Clement:
“Everything is possible in a game. And in the three games I had against them we drew one and lost the other two 2-1 at Celtic Park, even though we played a lot of those games with ten men.”
“It was very close every time. I know my players will give everything in this final game to give the fans something special. I believe in that.”
“We’ll see, it was positive that Abda [Abdallah Sima] and Ridvan [Yilmaz] could take a few minutes today. We’ll see if Leon Balogun can get fit again. We’ll see that in the week, so it’s difficult for me to plan the starting XI and which players will make it.
“We have to clarify with the medical staff and the performance staff how many players are available for how many minutes. A player could be fit and play a few minutes on Friday and I have to wait until that moment.”
“I don’t like this situation, but it’s been like this for a few weeks.”