Rangers boss Derek McInnes has implied that Hibernian were lucky earlier this season as his side fell 2-1 at home to their Premier Sports Cup final opposition.
Callum Wright’s stoppage time winner was enough for Hibs on the second day of the season, but both sides have had changing fortunes since then.
Hibernian currently sit bottom of the table, whilst Rangers are 11 games unbeaten in all competitions, sitting four points behind Celtic with a game in hand.
Speaking in a talkSPORT interview with Jeff Stelling and Ally McCoist, McInnes said: “Yeah, that was after a European game on the Thursday night. We absolutely battered Hibs that day at Ibrox, they done us on a counter attack at the very last kick of the ball. It was just one of the games. They got a penalty against us early on, which was never a penalty by the way. It was just one of those games.”
Despite attributing the loss to balancing domestic and European football, Hibs had also played the Thursday before, defeating KF Shëndija of North Macedonia in the Conference League qualifiers. Hibs would advance to the play-off round the following Thursday, whereas Rangers would lose to Polish side Jagiellonia Białystok. Both sides were defeated in the final round of Conference League qualifiers, meaning balancing European football won’t be an issue for next month’s final.
McInnes went on to say: “Hibs are a capable team, as much as everybody probably anticipated Hearts winning the game, semi-finals are so difficult to predict. There’s normally a lot of anxiety in these games, I thought Hibs were good value yesterday and they brought a good performance. It’ll be good to look forward to in six weeks time.
“We just need to go into it, hopefully in good form, because Hibs with a new manager will be improving and be better when that comes round, so it’s important that we are as well.”
It’s a long six weeks between here and the final on December 13th, but both sides will go into the match full of confidence. Rangers will expected to be the favourites, not only given both side’s league positions and their standing within Scottish football. However, Hibs can also go into the final with confidence, they haven’t lost to Rangers at Barclays Hampden since 1979, and the performance on Sunday was the best Hibs display in a long time, with many in Leith hoping things have finally clicked under Marink Reedijk.
