Hearts and Rangers share two points in opening day draw at Tynecastle

Hearts and Rangers have shared two points at Tynecastle in the opening day of the new Premiership campaign.

The top-flight season got underway in the capital on Saturday afternoon in a clash between last year’s second and third place.

And they played out an entertaining 0-0 draw with both sides denied by the woodwork and having more than enough chances to win it but they had to settle for a point each.

Hearts had the best of the early chances with James Penrice and then Lawrence Shankland forcing Jack Butland into action in the opening stages.

Yan Dhanda then came close to a debut goal when he struck the bar with a curling effort from outside the box on the 12th minute.

The former Ross County playmaker was played in from fellow new boy Gerald Taylor and his shot took a slight deflection before hitting the corner of the woodwork.

Rangers had their fare share of possession without really testing Zander Clark but the Hearts keeper done well to force a long-range effort from Connor Barron out for a corner.

And Cyriel Dessers will probably feel he should have opened the scoring just moments later when he collected a through ball with a perfect first touch to set himself up but his lobbed effort was just to high and flew over the bar.

It was end-to-end stuff in the first-half and former Rangers man Barrie McKay was next up following a bursting run from Kenneth Vargas on the break.

The winger had a couple of options but decided to play the ball across the box to McKay who fired it well over the bar.

Hearts then had a penalty claim turned down after a quick VAR check when the ball looked to have deflected off Barron’s arm inside the box but the officials decided the midfielder’s hands were in a natural position.

Dessers came close again as the first-half was drawing to a close and the Nigerian done well to get his shot away but Clark managed to keep it out.

The game remained goalless going into the break and Rangers were forced into a change early in the second-half when Oscar Cortes suffered an injury.

The Colombian winger was replaced by Rabbi Matondo and he had a speculative effort just moments after coming on that flew well over the bar.

Rangers came out of the traps the quickest after the break and they nearly got themselves in front when a close ranger header from Dessers hit the bar.

Clement then made another couple of changes with new signing Vaclav Cerny brought in with Leon Balogun for Scott Wright and Ben Davies.

And they were almost in-front soon after when Tom Lawrence connected with a volley that looked as though it was heading into the top-corner before Clark produced a brilliant save to keep it out.

Butland was then forced into action up the other end when he blocked a Shankland effort at the near-post and it started to increasingly look the first-goal would be the winner.

Hearts came close again with 15 minutes remaining but James Tavernier turned the ball over the bar for a corner.

Both sides continued to create chances as they pushed for winner into the dying stages but they were unable to get the breakthrough and the game ended all square.