Hearts defeated Rangers 2-1 at Tynecastle to tighten their grip on top spot and dent the visitors’ hopes of forcing their way into the William Hill Premiership title race.
Danny Rohl’s side arrived in Edinburgh buoyed by an 11-game unbeaten run in the league, but they were undone by first-half goals from Stuart Findlay and captain Lawrence Shankland before Youssef Chermiti’s stoppage-time consolation.
Hearts have now won all four of their matches against Celtic and Rangers this season as their quest to end the Glasgow giants’ 40-year monopoly of the Scottish top flight continues to gather pace.
Derek McInnes’ side, already assured of being the first non-Old Firm side to top the table on Christmas Day since 1993, made two changes in their defence as the injured Craig Halkett and suspended Harry Milne were replaced by Frankie Kent and Stephen Kingsley.
Gers – unbeaten in the league since losing at home to Hearts in mid-September – made three changes to the team that started Monday’s win over Hibernian as Nasser Djiga, Chermiti and Findlay Curtis made way for James Tavernier, Nico Raskin and Bojan Miovski.
After a scrappy opening 10 minutes, the Ibrox men thought they had taken the lead when Emmanuel Fernandez’s header from a James Tavernier corner was touched over the line by Miovski, but the North Macedonia forward was deemed to have stepped offside following a lengthy VAR check.
Hearts were struggling to find a way through a compact Rangers side, but they came to life in the 17th minute when Kent fed Alexandros Kyziridis on the right and the Greek winger surged inside before bending a low left-footed shot just wide from 20 yards out.
The visitors were generally the more sure-footed side in the early stages and they threatened an opener in the 22nd minute when Mikey Moore’s shot from outside the box was parried out by Alexander Schwolow and Jayden Meghoma’s effort from the rebound was scrambled behind by the hosts.
But Hearts started to gain a foothold and they made the breakthrough in the 38th minute with another of their well-worked set-piece routines. Kyziridis rolled a corner short to Braga and he shaped to cross before back-heeling to the Greek, who fizzed over a brilliant inswinging delivery that was headed home by Findlay from six yards out.
Within four minutes, Hearts doubled their lead. After Findlay’s free-kick from the centre circle was headed on by Oisin McEntee and then Braga, Shankland ghosted in behind the Rangers defence and, from the tightest of angles on the right, squeezed a low shot in between the legs of the errant Jack Butland and the near post.
Shankland had two brilliant chances to kill the game in the 60th and 69th minutes but rolled one agonisingly wide and then saw an effort saved by Butland after being sent clean through.
Substitute Chermiti capitalised on a mix-up in the home defence to pull one back with the last kick of the match but it mattered little as Hearts moved 12 points clear of fourth-placed Gers.
