How often have we been here with Rangers? Walter Smith’s team have done it again — never mind the football, just admire the result.
PSV Eindhoven are the Dutch league leaders, and arguably have greater playing resources at their disposal, but Rangers kept them at bay last night to leave open the mouthwatering prospect of the second leg at Ibrox next week in this Europa League round-of-16 tie.
PSV, to tell the truth, missed two or three glaring chances, the main culprits being Marcelo and Marcus Berg. But that is not to deny the quality of Rangers’ defending. The Ibrox side played their usual five-man rearguard, and it is becoming a thorn in the side of many an opposition team, who simply cannot get through Smith’s set-up on these occasions.
There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Rangers have now gone on a remarkable 20-game run in Europe in which they have won only one match.
Such a bare harvest speaks of a team that deplores cavalier football, but also of one that makes a high art of defending. This season, on the other hand, Rangers have also only lost twice in nine European outings, which isn’t bad for a team of such obvious limitations.
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PSV have a regiment of gifted players — Ola Toivonen, Berg and Balázs Dzsudzsák being the most eye-catching — and they are at present good enough to be the dominant force in the Netherlands. But Rangers last night provoked PSV’s supporters into turning on their players in frustration.
Berg, for instance, having squandered at least two decent chances, was barracked as he left the field, substituted after 69 minutes. PSV had craft, they mainly dominated the open play, but yet again this Maginot Line of a Rangers defence held firm.
Hand it to Smith, the Ibrox side’s soon-to-depart manager: he does his club proud, ploughing across Europe and muzzling opponents like this.
Rangers had one excellent chance in the match — yes, one — when Kyle Bartley’s second-half header was pushed wide by Andreas Isaksson. That proved to be the Ibrox side’s solitary opportunity, but, defending as well as they did, Rangers always knew they could steal something here.
This was the Rangers we have come to know and, well, perhaps admire in a grim sort of way. It has been said often enough before: Smith’s teams win no beauty awards but, by heavens, they give their supporters cause for optimism. Another European quarterfinals spot is now tantalisingly in sight.
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What was a surprise was seeing Neil Alexander in goal: given the nod by Smith with a view to getting Rangers’ long-suffering reserve goalkeeper some game-time before next week’s Co-operative Insurance Cup final against Celtic. Alexander had a mixed night, making a fine early save from Berg, but also flapping once or twice at high balls.
Rangers are down to bare resources, and it is just as well that Smith got Bartley in on loan from Arsenal in January. The young defender took his place alongside David Weir and Madjid Bougherra at the heart of the Rangers rearguard, with Richard Foster at right back and Steven Whittaker at left back.
Kyle Lafferty, just recovered from tonsillitis, also made this Rangers line-up, as did Kyle Hutton, a decent young midfield player who is nonetheless in this Rangers team for such matches due to Smith’s dearth of other options.
In truth, this wasn’t meant to be quite as grim a piece of attrition as it looked on paper. With Foster tasked with pushing as high up the field as possible on the right, Rangers hoped to get more men forward, though PSV still created by far the greater chances.
In particular, after Alexander had saved from Berg, Jeremain Lens meandered into the Rangers box before blazing a shot over, and then Marcelo headed over at the back post when Alexander’s net gaped before him. In the first half, while all this was going on, Rangers made only rare forays upfield but rarely, if ever, troubled Isaksson’s goal.
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Arguable PSV’s best chance of the match so far came after 51 minutes, when the ever-aware Toivonen slipped a pass to Berg inside the Rangers box. The striker took the ball in his stride but shot a foot wide of Alexander’s right post. Yet Rangers, as we have seen so often in Europe, while weathering the storm, were never fully out of it.
Shortly before the hour mark, Bartley met Steven Davis’s corner unchallenged and forced Isaksson into an excellent one-handed save. Indeed, the ball might even have scraped the goalkeeper’s left post. So Rangers knew that, as long as they kept PSV at bay, they always had a chance of stealing a first-leg lead.
Smith also made a personnel switch after 64 minutes, taking off El Hadji Diouf and throwing on Vladimir Weiss, playing the Slovakian through the middle in the hope of exploiting PSV’s clear frustrations.
Berg fluffed a series of openings and was even barracked by the home support when he was replaced by Danny Koevermans. But even worse for PSV was Marcelo’s terrible miss at the far post, meeting Dzsudzsák’s cross but heading well wide from five yards.
PSV Eindhoven (4-4-1-1): A Isaksson — S Manolev, Marcelo, W Bouma, E Pieters — J Lens, A Hutchinson, O Engelaar, B Dzsudzsák — O Toivonen (sub: O Bakkal, 83min) — M Berg (sub: D Koevermans, 69). Substitutes not used: C Ramos, F Rodríguez, J Vukovic, S Wuytens, G Zeefuik.
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Rangers (5-4-1): N Alexander — R Foster, M Bougherra, D Weir, K Bartley, S Whittaker — S Davis, M Edu, K Hutton, K Lafferty (sub: G Wylde, 80) — E H Diouf (sub: V Weiss, 64). Substitutes not used: A McGregor, J Fleck, D Healy, D Cole, K Hemmings. Booked: Lafferty.
Referee: M Hansson (Sweden).