Hearts-Rangers battle for Europe

Celtic has already wrapped up their 40th Scottish Premier League title in convincing fashion, but the real excitement comes this weekend in the battle for second place. Who cares about second place? What matters? Only millions of dollars in club revenue and a spot in the lucrative UEFA Champions League next season for the winner, while the loser goes to the NIT-ish UEFA Cup.

Rangers and Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) will square off at Ibrox in Glasgow Sunday. Rangers have a history of winning on the last day of the season recently. Last season Celtic was in position to win the league on the last day, but surrendered a late goal so they only got a tie. Rangers then scored 2 goals late, and Rangers supporters tried to get back into Ibrox, having already conceded the title.

At this point, I'm handicapping this one for Rangers. Not just because they're playing at home, or because this team has much more experience in big-level competitions having advanced to the Round of 16 in the Champions League this year. I'm picking Rangers because I can't see a team like Hearts, with so much to play for losing Wednesday night against Aberdeen. A win Wednesday would put Hearts up 4 points on Rangers with one match to play, making Sunday's contest completely irrelevant, and leaving neither team with much motivation, enabling Rangers' superior talent to pull through.