Tavernier: Rangers squad have belief in each other ahead of cup final

James Tavernier insists the Rangers squad have the belief and confidence in each other to win the Scottish Cup but admits they have to do their talking on the pitch.

The Ibrox captain will lead the team out at Hampden on Saturday to take on Celtic in the final game of the domestic season.

It will be the first time the sides have met in the Scottish Cup final for 22 years.

Rangers have failed to beat Celtic in four attempts this season, taking just one point from a possible 12, and finished eight points ahead of their city rivals in the Premiership as a result.

The last meaningful Old Firm fixture that Rangers won was at the national stadium in 2022 when Giovanni Van Bronkhorst’s side beat Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic at the semi-final stage.

But Tavernier is desperate to put that right this weekend to end the season on a high and believes they can take the trophy back to Ibrox to add to the League Cup won earlier in the campaign.

He said: “It is obviously important, it is a trophy that we can get our hands on, the last game of the season so it is one last push.

“You come to Rangers to win trophies, and we have got ourselves in the final and we have got to push it over the line and win the trophy.

“We have obviously fallen short a few times in games, but the key thing is taking our moments and I think that is the lesson in these games. When we do get the moments, we have to take them and give ourselves in with the best possible chance to achieve what we want to achieve.

“The team itself has the belief and the confidence with each other. We have already highlighted the key moments, we know it will be a different game and we have to do our talking on the pitch.

“Everyone in that changing room tries to give their maximum for the team and for the club and I have never seen anyone fall short of that. They work extremely hard behind the scenes at the training ground and try to obviously put that into a match.

“Everybody wants to end the season on a high. We want to do it for the fans, our families and for the backroom staff who you don’t really see, who look after us every single day, you want to do it for everybody.”