Robbie Neilson says Rangers’ Europa League Final run has no bearing on Hearts ahead of Hampden.
But the manager has heaped praise on the Ibrox side for their charge to Seville. And Neilson says the knock-on effect does make a big difference to his club when it comes to their own bid in the tournament next term.
Neilson applauded Giovanni van Bronckhorst ’s men for clinching a clash with Eintracht Frankfurt that comes just three days before meeting Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final.
But the Tynecastle boss said: “You don’t know if they will be in this form or that form. Rangers might be flying, they might not be flying, so we just have to look at ourselves and make sure we are as ready as we can be.
“You can’t control what is going on at another club, or another game. Our mindset is to focus on us and we have three big games prior to Hampden and we need to make sure we are at it.
“It’s a huge achievement to get to a European final, but, from our perspective, we want to try and beat them in the Scottish Cup Final. We give them a pat on the back but we have to be ready to try and beat them.”
Neilson’s team enter the Europa League themselves at the start of next summer aiming to win a play-off to reach the group stage.
Defeat would still see them have six matches in the sections of the Conference League and he says Rangers’ work is a boost for a number of factors.
Neilson, who has Michael Smith, Cammy Devlin and John Souttar back in the squad for Sunday's clash against Celtic, said: “What Rangers did on Thursday was outstanding for Scottish football as a whole.
“It gets the coefficient up. Last time we were in Europe, we had to win four games back to back to try to get into the Europa League.
“Getting European football is attractive for players coming in from our perspective and it brings up the stock of Scottish football as well, the coefficient of Rangers going so far, all the other teams will get a payment.”
