De Boer: Bring on Celtic
Hearts 0 Rangers 1
Rangers playmaker Ronald de Boer will be rooting for arch-rivals Celtic to win a place in the CIS Insurance Cup final.
The Dutchman grabbed the only goal of the game against Hearts to allow the Ibrox side to take a major step towards lifting the trophy for the second season in a row.
Celtic must wait until tomorrow, when they take on Dundee United in the second semi-final at the national stadium, to find out if they will join Rangers in the showdown final at Hampden.
De Boer is desperate to battle against Martin O’Neill’s men for the first silverware of the season and he admits he will forget the Old Firm rivalry between the two sides for one night only to urge Celtic on to a win against the Tannadice side.
He said: “If I am being honest, I would love an Old Firm final because that would make the game that bit extra special.
“I love to play in those games so if I had to choose then I would choose Celtic.
“That’s no disrespect to Dundee United, of course, and if they deserve to win it, then they deserve to be in the final.
“But there could be over 50,000 people at Hampden for the final and if it is against Celtic then the atmosphere will be crazy.”
Hearts boss Craig Levein admitted after the game that a lack of self-belief from his players cost the Tynecastle side their place in the final.
De Boer netted midway through the first half to snatch the only goal of the game and he reckons, despite such a narrow victory, that Rangers were never in danger of crashing out of the competition.
He said: “In the first half we played quite well, we let the ball do the work and I think they were chasing shadows.
“The only negative thing was that we were only 1-0 up and that gave them a little belief that they were in the game.
“In the second half they put us under a little more pressure and tried to be more accurate in playing the ball through to the strikers and they did much better – although I can’t really remember any real chances or there being any real danger but we were also not that dangerous.
“I didn’t feel any nerves – I think it was just a lack of concentration because the first half was so good and we thought we were going to make the second goal.”
