Rangers' enjoy better luck in Scottish Cup final

Rangers ended a tumultuous week in glory with a hard-earned Scottish Cup final victory over Hearts after extra-time at Hampden Park.

The Light Blues were shattered by their 5-4 penalty shootout defeat in the Europa League final by Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night and they went into extra-time again thanks to Craig Gordon's save with his foot from Joe Aribo near the end of normal time.

However, the Ibrox side dug deep yet again and the Gorgie captain could not keep out a thunderbolt from Ryan Jack after 94 minutes before fellow substitute Scott Wright fired in a second – three minutes later – to take the trophy back to Ibrox for the first time since 2009.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst won the cup playing with Rangers in 2000 and captured his first trophy as Ibrox manager having taken over from Steven Gerrard last November and it was well deserved.

There had been questions beforehand about Rangers’ response to their European disappointment.

Playing 120 gruelling minutes in the heat of Seville had appeared to take its toll on some of the Gers players – Borna Barisic was injured – and Van Bronckhorst freshened up the side with five changes.

On-loan Manchester United winger Amad Diallo was handed a surprise start, goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin continued his run of playing in every Scottish Cup tie this season, while Steven Davis, Scott Arfield and Leon Balogun also returned.

Jambos defenders Craig Halkett and Ibrox-bound John Souttar both came back into the Hearts defence following ankle injuries – they came off he the bench in last week’s Premiership defeat by the same opponents – while attacker Liam Boyce recovered from a groin strain.

Referee Willie Collum’s whistle punctuated the opening minutes and – amid a series of fouls – Hearts