Craig Gordon insists it would be amazing for Scottish football if Rangers can win the Europa League.
But the Hearts keeper is pretty sure the Seville showpiece against Eintracht Frankfurt for Giovanni van Brockhorst’s troops just three days before the Scottish Cup Final won’t have an impact on the outcome at Hampden.
Gordon laughed and joked about the Ibrox players deserving to go on the lash in Spain if they beat the Germans and win the trophy.
But he’s deadly serious about the impact of a Rangers success on the big night for the entire Scottish game and the lack of impact it will have on the clash between his team and the Light Blues at the National Stadium immediately afterwards.
Gordon said: “Who knows? We’ll only know after the event. You can play it out two different ways. Yes and no.
“Could it go to extra-time, penalties, travel, so many things come into it.
“They have done fantastically well to get there. It’s a major achievement and you’d want to see them go there and do well for Scottish football.
“Potentially, to win a European trophy, that would be amazing for everybody in Scottish football, for our coefficient, Champions League places, all the things that go with it.
“We want to do as well as we can as a nation at international level and also our club teams doing well, too.
“It boils down to the fact they are a good team. They came back from extra-time in Europe [against Braga] to beat Celtic in the semi-final three days later, so they are a fit team and very capable of putting up with the schedule.
“They have done it all season and consistently performed well, especially in Europe, I don’t think it has a great bearing.
“They are conditioned to deal with that and we’ll have to be at our best.”
When asked if he hoped Rangers would win and get carried away with post-match celebrations, he smiled: “If they manage to win a European final, they would deserve it!”
For the moment, Hearts have to concentrate on the moment and the build-up to Hampden.
Key stars such as John Souttar and Michael Smith are making their way back from injury and could be involved in Wednesday’s encounter against Motherwell.
Hearts face Rangers at Tynecastle in the final top-flight game of the season on Saturday as well, but, again, Gordon sees no connection to Hampden.
The weekend loss to Celtic was a setback, but Gordon said: “We certainly started like we meant business and played well at the start of the game. It’s always difficult when they get back into it and the atmosphere built.
“We lost two goals in the first half when, on another day, we could easily have gone in 1-0 up as the two goals might not have counted for whatever reason, but they did and we have to react.
“We did and were well in the game having our best spell when we lost the third one, so there were spells that were good and other spells to go away and improve on for the rest of this season and next season as well.
“We are still in a good place. We’ve obviously had a number of injuries and we are trying to get boys back for the Final.
“We are preparing as best we can to get a full squad for Hampden.
“We’re unsure what will transpire between now and then [Saturday], who they [Rangers] will play with a European Final after it, so it’s just about preparing ourselves.
“I don’t think that match will have any bearing on what happens at Hampden. It’s another preparation game for both teams and we’ll try to win.
“We were 120 unbeaten before Celtic and we want to get back to winning ways. We have a couple before the final to do that.”
