- Thelo Aasgaard insists Rangers still believe despite damaging Ibrox defeat to Motherwell.
- Slow starts and defensive lapses leave Rangers four points behind Hearts with four games remaining.
- Tynecastle clash now decisive as Danny Rohl’s side fight to keep title hopes alive.
Rangers midfielder Thelo Aasgaard is defiant that his side’s championship hopes remain alive despite a costly defeat at Ibrox to Motherwell.
The Norwegian missed a guild-edged chance at 2-2 before Emmanuel Longelo netted a winner for the Steelmen late on to severely dent the Gers’ title hopes.
With Hearts winning the Edinburgh derby against Hibs with a late winner, Danny Rohl’s side are four points behind the Jambos ahead of their trip to Tynecastle next week.
Thelo Aasgaard keeps the faith
But Aasgaard insists the team are prepared to fight to the end and go again.
“Firstly, it’s analysing, recovering, eating right, sleeping right, living right,” he explained.
“We need to feel the pain of today and then focus on the next one.”
He believes that if Rangers remain professional and prepare right, they can get back into the race on Monday evening.
“We’ve got the belief that we can do it, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been this season,” he said.
“We’ll group together and go again.”
Tynecastle test looms large
This was the second time in three years that Rangers have thrown away the initiative in a title race with a home defeat to the North Lanarkshire side.
Phillipe Clement’s Rangers side lost to Motherwell in 2024, giving Celtic the chance to take control of the race then.
Now Rohl’s side have done the same, the only difference being it is now Hearts in command.
Derek McInnes’s side now sit four clear of Rangers with four to go.
They are also three clear of now-second placed Celtic.
With the Gers consigned to third following their first Premiership defeat since November.
That defeat came on their last trip to the home of Hearts.
Aasgaard’s defiance is understandable, but the context is far less forgiving.
Rangers are not just chasing points now; they are chasing control of a title race they have twice loosened at Ibrox against the same opponent across three years.
Four points adrift, four games remaining. The margins are now brutally thin after being in the Gers favour beforehand.
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What compounds the issue is not just the defeat, but the manner of it.
Rangers are developing a damaging habit: passive first halves, reactive second halves.
Aasgaard’s own admission that Rangers were “caught in between” attack and defence and “didn’t get close enough,” speaks to a team that, too often, waits for the game to dictate terms before asserting itself.
At this stage of the season, that hesitation is costly.
And now comes Tynecastle.
Win or bust.
Rangers’ last visit there brought their only Premiership defeat since November, a detail that sharpens the jeopardy.
McInnes’s side are organised, opportunistic, and, crucially, now playing with scoreboard pressure in their favour.
They don’t need to chase the game; Rangers do.
For all the talk of belief and unity, Monday evening is less about sentiment and more about control.
If Rangers start slowly again, the title race may effectively be decided before the final whistle.
If they impose themselves early, disrupt Hearts’ rhythm, and avoid mistakes, the very flaw that cost them against Motherwell, they can keep the race alive.
Aasgaard is right about one thing: nothing is mathematically gone.
But psychologically and tactically, this is a threshold moment.
Win, and the narrative shifts back to resilience and there will be hope ahead of a trip to Celtic Park.
Fail, and it becomes another chapter in a familiar story, one where promise fades under pressure just when authority is required most.
