In response to the Scottish Cup semi-final draw, which would see his Hearts team play Rangers at Hampden Park, Lawrence Shankland said that the match will be difficult.
The forward, who was strongly linked to a January transfer to Ibrox, acknowledged that his squad can improve after losing 3-1 in the Scottish League Cup semifinal.
He continued by saying that the club is eager to play Philippe Clement’s team and will give it their all in an effort to get to the championship game.
Shankland responded in real time on BBC Sportscene [11 March, 2:24:18] by saying, “It’ll be a tough game.” It’s always going to be challenging when you’re in the semifinals.
We aim to improve on our performance from the previous cup semi-final, where we didn’t play well and our strategy didn’t really work.
We’ll go for it, but it’s always going to be difficult when the competition reaches this point. There are still a lot of strong teams. We’re excited about it..”
Lawrence Shankland responds to latest Rangers development
Given their difficulties in that specific meeting this season, Hearts seem resolute in their goal to upset the Ibrox club, and Shankland’s remarks are evidence of that.
This comes soon after Hearts manager Steven Naismith expressed his opinions about the semi-final draw and acknowledged that his team is eager to defeat Rangers and has learned from their encounter in the League Cup semifinal at Hampden.
When these teams previously faced off, Clement’s team won 5-0. They will try to replicate that success in order to advance to their second final and, ideally, win a second championship under the Belgian manager.
Shankland, meanwhile, may have been on the Rangers team the other side of the semi-final match, but he will put any talk or rumors about that possible trade on wait in order to concentrate on winning trophies with his current team.
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