“That’s the frustration”: Hearts ace delivers ‘good pressure’ verdict and reveals Rangers moment that meant nothing to him<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heart of Midlothian striker Claudio Braga has urged his teammates to remain united and focused after their dramatic 4\u20132 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite racing into the lead twice in the first half through goals from Marc Leonard and Braga, Hearts were unable to withstand a second-half surge from the hosts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A hat-trick from Youssef Chermiti, combined with an unfortunate own goal by Michael Steinwender, completed a stunning comeback and handed Rangers all three points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result saw Hearts\u2019 advantage at the summit of the Scottish Premiership trimmed to just two points, with further pressure coming from Celtic, who edged a dramatic 3\u20132 victory over Kilmarnock thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Julian Araujo earlier in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, Braga insists that the strong dressing-room spirit that has driven Hearts\u2019 impressive campaign will be key as they look to respond quickly.
\u201cWe\u2019re still top of the league,\u201d the 26-year-old said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are plenty of matches still to play and we\u2019re in a strong position. Of course it\u2019s frustrating to lose against a direct rival, especially when you know you could have done better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scoring twice at Ibrox isn\u2019t easy, but we still came away with nothing, and that\u2019s hard to take. The important thing is using that frustration to push us on and win the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflecting on his goal, Braga admitted personal satisfaction was overshadowed by the result. \u201cAt the time I was happy, but now I\u2019d rather have the worst performance of my career and take the three points. Individual moments don\u2019t matter when the team doesn\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Portuguese forward also revealed how the squad rallied together after the match. \u201cA lot of the boys spoke afterwards. We\u2019re very united and we trust each other completely. That togetherness is why we\u2019re where we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone gives everything for one another.\u201d
Braga also responded to pre-match comments from Rangers head coach Danny Rohl, who suggested Hearts were feeling similar pressure in the title race after seeing their once-commanding lead reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really see it as pressure,\u201d Braga said with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s been 40 years since Hearts last won the league, so what we\u2019re doing is special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re proud of our work. The pressure is usually on teams that are expected to win titles. For us, it\u2019s a good kind of pressure. We just need to enjoy it, keep the right mentality, and focus on winning games. We\u2019re still first, there\u2019s a lot to play for, and we\u2019ve got some good fixtures coming up, especially at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“That’s the frustration”: Hearts ace delivers ‘good pressure’ verdict and reveals Rangers moment that meant nothing to him\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[758,438,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-3929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-claudio-braga","9":"tag-hearts","10":"tag-rangers"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/21605905.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitsportnews.com.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}