Preview: Rangers vs. Hearts - prediction, team news, lineups

While the hosts are merely playing for pride, the visitors are seeking to keep in touch with Aberdeen in the race for a top-three finish.

Match preview

After securing a comfortable 3-0 victory over Old Firm rivals and champions Celtic, Rangers claimed maximum points in a 3-1 away win over Hibernian on Sunday.

Michael Beale revealed that preparations for the contest at Easter Road "couldn't have been worse" after his squad were decimated by injury at short notice, but the Gers battled their way to victory courtesy of goals from James Tavernier, Todd Cantwell and Ianis Hagi, the latter scoring his first goal in 16 months following a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Rangers are guaranteed to finish second in the Premiership as they sit a mammoth 34 points ahead of third-placed Aberdeen, and they now require just one point from their final two matches to equal last season's points tally of 89.

The Gers enter Wednesday's match with the joint-best home record in this season's Premiership, winning 16 and drawing two of their 18 matches at Ibrox and claiming 50 points along with rivals Celtic.

Beale's side will be confident of claiming all three points against Hearts as they have won each of their last six league meetings with the Jam Tarts, including all three this season by an aggregate score of 8-0.

Hearts have kept their hopes of securing third place alive after claiming a deserved 2-1 victory at home against Aberdeen last weekend.

Despite going behind just after the half-hour mark through a Mattie Pollock header, the Jam Tarts fought back with a 43rd-minute equaliser from Josh Ginnelly, before top scorer Lawrence Shankland completed the turnaround with his 27th goal of the season 11 minutes after half time.

Steven Naismith's side remain fourth in the Premiership standings but have now moved to within two points of third-placed Aberdeen, who still have to face champions Celtic on the final day.

Hearts make the midweek journey to Glasgow having failed to win any of their last six away games, losing five of those and conceding 13 goals in the process.

Not since August 2014 have Hearts picked up all three points at Ibrox, with a 92nd-minute winner from Osman Sow securing a 2-1 victory over Rangers when both teams were competing in the Championship.

Rangers Scottish Premiership form:

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Rangers form (all competitions):

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Hearts Scottish Premiership form:

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Team News

Rangers boss Beale has confirmed that centre-back Connor Goldson is ruled out for the next 10 weeks with a foot injury and he is facing a race against time to recover for the start of next season.

The Gers lost Rabbi Matondo during the warm-up last weekend, while Alfredo Morelos, Glen Kamara and Scott Wright all withdrew from the squad a day earlier, and the quartet are all doubtful for Wednesday's clash, as is Nicolas Raskin who picked up a minor knock to his knee against Hibs.

Rangers have indeed been hampered with injuries throughout this season and they are still unable to call on the services of Ryan Kent, Ben Davies, Borna Barisic, Kemar Roofe, Tom Lawrence, Steven Davis, Filip Helander and Nnamdi Ofoborh.

Injury is set to prevent Morelos, Kent and Davis from bidding farewell to Ibrox, with all three players out of contract at the end of this month, as are Scott Arfield and Allan McGregor who will be hoping to play some part against Hearts.

As for the visitors, Naismith will be tempted to stick with the same starting lineup that beat Aberdeen, although he may ponder making a couple of alternations considering the quick turnaround.

Michael Smith could return at right-back at the expense of Nathaniel Atkinson, while Orestis Kiomourtzoglou or Jorge Grant will be pushing to start in centre-midfield ahead of Peter Haring.

Ginnelly is fit to continue as the central striker despite limping off last weekend and he is set be supported in attack by Shankland, who has scored five goals in his last four games and remains in the hunt to win the Golden Boot, with his 23 goals just two behind Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi at the top of the charts.

Rangers possible starting lineup:

McGregor; Tavernier, King, Souttar, Yilmaz; Lundstram, Jack, Raskin; Cantwell, Sakala, Hagi

Hearts possible starting lineup:

Clark; Smith, Sibbick, Rowles, Cochrane; Devlin, Kiomourtzoglou; Oda, Shankland, McKay; Ginnelly

We say: Rangers 2-1 Hearts

Rangers have dominated this fixture in recent years and will be regarded as favourites to come out on top again on Wednesday, even with the absence of a number of first-team players.

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