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After the failure of the title defenders "Celtic" in the quarterfinals of the Scottish League Cup on Wednesday, further failures of two favorites were recorded - "Rangers" unexpectedly withdrew from the tournament after losing to a lower league club "St Johnstone" at home and acknowledging the complete superiority of "Hearts" in the Edinburgh derby against "Hibernian".
After the failure of "Celtic" on Tuesday, it seemed that the main favorite to win the cup became Glasgow neighbor "Rangers", who faced the lower league "St Johnstone", but despite the clear difference in strength, the form of the teams favored "St Johnstone" - the struggling "Rangers" in the Premier League shared the 3-6 positions, while "St Johnstone" in the 1st division is among the leaders.
This was reflected on the field, as the hosts of the "Ibrox" stadium "Rangers" played poorly from the start of the match and the initiative was in favor of the visitors, and seven minutes into the second half, after Paul Sheerin's corner kick, Steven Milne scored a beautiful goal to put "St Johnstone" ahead. Soon after, Rangers' forward Kris Boyd missed the opportunity to equalize, and in the 68th minute, S. Milne beat goalkeeper Allan McGregor and doubled the lead after bypassing Brahim Hemdani.
At the end of the match, "Rangers" almost scored a goal, but the referee decided that K. Boyd's shot did not cross the goal line. The visitors resisted and secured one of the most impressive victories in the club's history, earning a ticket to the League Cup semifinals, where for the first time since the 1979/80 season, neither of the two major Glasgow clubs will be present.
However, one of the Edinburgh clubs had to be in the semifinals, as in one of the quarterfinals, the two capital teams "Hibernian" and "Hearts" faced off. The latter team, who had not won at the "Easter Road" stadium for several years, made only one change in the lineup under coach Eduard Malofeyev - the recovered captain Steven Pressley returned to the defense, replacing the injured Davy Cesnauskis.
This substitution meant that "Hearts" started the match with five nominal defenders, four midfielders, including Saulius Mikoliunas and Marius Zaliukas, and the lone striker Andrius Velicka. This strategy did not pay off, as the hosts "Hibernian" dominated on the field from the start of the match, and when referee did not count M. Zaliukas' goal on the 19th minute due to a foul by Paul Hartley, the hosts took the lead on the 32nd minute, when defender Rob Jones sent the ball into the net from close range after a corner kick by Merouane Zemmama.
Later, "Hibernian" almost doubled their lead through Scott Brown, whose shot deflected off goalkeeper Craig Gordon's leg and flew past the goal, and later "Hearts" goalkeeper had to defend against M. Zemmama's penalty kick and a similar and slightly inaccurate attempt by David Murphy.
After the break, the hosts continued to maintain the initiative, and near the visitors' goal, goal scorer R. Jones almost doubled the lead, and Guillaume Beuzelin's attempt to lob the goalkeeper lacked accuracy. As the match wore on unsatisfactorily, E. Malofeyev tried to change the game on the 55th minute by replacing Robbie Neilson with Nerijus Barasa, and replacing S. Mikoliunas with striker Jamie Mole, but the situation on the field did not change.
With ten minutes remaining, "Hibernian" forward Chris Killen took a shot, and with seven minutes left, the "Hearts" coaches threw their last card onto the field - striker Juho Makela, who replaced Marius Zaliukas, but the hosts still created opportunities and G. Beuzelin almost increased the score again. "Hearts" escaped a rout, but withdrew from the tournament and gave their city rivals a good chance to win their first trophies since 1992 when "Hibernian" also won the League Cup.
On Thursday, the semifinal draw revealed that "St Johnstone" will face "Hibernian" and "Kilmarnock" will play against "Falkirk". The semifinal matches will be played at the end of January next year, and the League Cup final will take place on March 18, 2007.
Wednesday's quarterfinal match results
"Rangers" 0 - 2 "St Johnstone" 52' [0 - 1] Steven Milne 68' [0 - 2] Steven Milne
"Hibernian" 1 - 0 "Hearts" 32' [1 - 0] Rob Jones
Scottish League Cup semifinal pairings
"Kilmarnock" - "Falkirk"
"St Johnstone" - "Hibernian"
