Sun May 4 12:16:19 2008

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Rangers held by Hibs

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Edinburgh, Scotland (Sports Network) - Rangers' title hopes took a slight hit on Sunday as the club was held to a 0-0 draw by Hibernian at Easter Road Stadium.

After reaching the finals of the UEFA Cup with a shoot-out win over Fiorentina on Thursday, Rangers was unable to muster up enough to take all three points and they now sit seven points back of Celtic with three games in hand.

Although Rangers still controls its own destiny, Celtic has to feel as though it still has a great chance at retaining the title with its Glasgow rivals having to navigate such a congested fixture list over the next few weeks.

The game started slowly but came to life before halftime when Rangers nearly seized the lead through a corner kick. Carlos Cuellar headed the cross towards the bottom corner, but Hibs goalkeeper Andrew McNeil made a good diving stop to keep it out.

Rangers continued to pressure after halftime as Barry Ferguson had a shot stopped by the legs of McNeil, but Hibs responded with a good shot from Filipe Morais that forced keeper Neil Alexander to tip the shot over the crossbar.

The visitors were increasingly desperate for a goal, but Kevin Thomson's free kick sailed past the left post, and a Christian Dailly free kick was headed over the net by Cuellar with the keeper at his mercy, forcing Walter Smith's side to settle for a point.