Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers travel to Easter Road Stadium to take on Hibernian in round 16 of the Scottish Premiership. Both teams meet each other for the second time this season in the league. Rangers won the reverse fixture by a scoreline of 2-1. However, Hibernian defeated Rangers in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals and the leaders will look to avenge their loss.
In the reverse fixture, Hibernian scored with the only shot attempted inside the first half. The Rangers created momentum towards the end of the first half and started the second half by attempting five shots inside the first ten minutes. It eventually led to two goals. Rangers players attempted 18 shots and had three on target. Alfredo Morelos attempted five shots for the Rangers and scored a goal. Hibernian players attempted four shots, with Kevin Nisbet scoring a goal for his side. A total of 52 positional attacks were created by Rangers, and 43 passes were attempted into the opposition’s penalty box with an accuracy rate of 62.8%.
Rangers have a four-point lead over Celtic in the points table. The defending champions have scored 32 goals and conceded 14. They enter this match after completing a 3-1 victory away at Livingston. Scott Arfield, Joe Aribo and Fashion Sakala were on the scoresheet for Rangers. This victory meant that the Rangers are now unbeaten in 12 league matches.
James Tavernier assisted twice in the last game and took his assist tally to ten. He has the most number of assists in the league and is one of the reasons behind the Rangers’ unbeaten run. Fashion Sakala scored his fifth goal of the season and has now become the joint-highest goal-scorer alongside Kemar Roofe. Roofe missed the last game due to an injury. Sakala has scored four goals in the last three games, including a hat-trick against Livingston. Alfredo Morelos is once again expected to lead the line for the league leaders.
The hosts ended their five-match losing streak after a 2-1 away victory against St. Johnstone in the previous round. St. Johnstone took the lead towards the end of the first half through an own goal but were soon reduced to 10 men. Kevin Nisbet and Jamie Murphy scored two goals in the 83rd and 86th minute respectively to hand their side a victory. This victory took them to sixth position in the league.
Hibernian players attempted 19 shots, with four on target. The goals were scored from inside the opposition’s penalty box. They were unlucky as two of the attempted shots hit the post from a very close range. 11 shots were attempted from inside the opposition’s penalty box, but none were attempted from inside the opposition’s 6-yard box.
Hibernian have scored 17 goals and conceded the same number of goals. Martin Boyle has been their top goal-scorer with seven goals. He was suspended in the last game and is expected to return for this fixture.
Rangers will look to avenge their league cup loss when they travel to Hibernian for a mid-week fixture. The defending champions have won their first league match under new manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst and will look to continue this momentum going ahead in the league.
