When Philippe Clement spoke to the assembled press in the bowels of Tynecastle Park on Saturday following his Rangers side's 0-0 draw with Heart of Midlothian, it was clear he accepted the point his team had earned.

A "fair result" he called it. 

Going a wee bit further into his assessment, the Belgian all but said it was a game of two halves having noted that he was "not satisfied with the first half" and that it was "an important" half-time break.

"It changed a lot in the second half. We took control of the game and played better football. We had good chances also and we dominated the second half."

He added: "You always need to see whether it was the correct result or not. I think it was a fair result. The first half was for Hearts, the second half was for us."

How much truth is in that assessment?

If you were to base it on possession then Clement was speaking the truth, Rangers did 'domintate' the second half. Having had a 59 per cent share of possession in the first 45, it grew to 66 per cent across the second half. The team's passing accurcy grew from 76 per cent to 85 per cent. 

But it was Hearts who were the more threatening side. In both halves.

Steven Naismith's men didn't need to dominate possession to be the better side against Rangers. Even with the visitor's possession, very rarely did it lead to sustained pressure where Hearts were camped in their own defensive third. 

Hearts tempted Rangers out and would exploit the space left down the sides and in behind with Gerald Taylor's ball-carrying and Kenneth Vargas' constant running making it very difficult for Rangers.

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Over the course of the game Hearts had:

  • A higher xG (1.33 against 0.56)

  • More shots (18 to 9)

  • More shots inside the box (11 to 3)

  • More touches in the oppsition box (34 to 29)

As for just the second half:

  • A higher xG (0.50 to 0.35)

  • More shots (10 to 4)

  • More shots inside the box (7 to 1)

  • More touches in the opposition box (23 to 15)

There is no better graphic that illustrates the fact that Rangers did not in fact dominate the second half than the xG race chart courtesy of StatsBomb. 

(Image: StatsBomb)

The diagram demonstrates when each side attempted shots across the course of the match. As we can see, Rangers didn't have a single shot after the 61st minute. Hearts had eight.