There have plenty of superlatives raining down on Rangers in their compelling run to the last eight of the Europa League and describing the latest performance as absorbent should be taken as another compliment.
On the nights when they aren’t controlling things or delivering fireworks in front of goal what better qualities to show than the ability to soak up pressure through resilient, stubborn defending and then flip a game on its head with a lethal counterattack? Red Star Belgrade peppered Rangers’ goal and a late penalty gave them a win they deserved on the night. But Rangers came through with something to spare.
For so long it was desperately tense. Red Star scored early to make inroads into Rangers’ emphatic 3-0 first-leg lead but then it all became happily predictable. The infamous Marakana was noisy and hostile, as expected. The suspicion that Rangers had effectively won this tie at Ibrox last week panned out too. The same applied to the feeling that they would be able to score again in Belgrade. When they did — Ryan Kent finally introducing himself to the night by scoring on the break almost an hour in — it took the wind out of Red Star.
Anyone who sensed that 40-year-old Allan McGregor would deliver more heroics was vindicated too. McGregor pulled off telling saves which frustrated and denied Red Star until it was too late to matter. Their own wastefulness and lack of attacking quality helped usher them out of the tournament.
Rangers march on, into a European quarter-final for the first time since going all the way to the Uefa Cup final in 2008. Possibilities abound and they will find out the next hurdle to clear when the draw is made at lunchtime today. The other seven may not fear them but they will, or should, give them respect, not least for coming through challenging ties against Borussia Dortmund and Red Star.
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This second leg was more of a trial than the others had been and Rangers wobbled against a determined rival pushed on by a fiercely partisan and noisy home support. What Rangers provided was yet another advertisement of their ability to score big goals even when they are on the ropes.
Red Star did what they had to do, and what they wanted to do, by scoring early. Their first meaningful attack of the night ate into Rangers’ aggregate lead. Aleksandar Katai fed a short corner to Guélor Kanga and when he lofted a cross into the box Glen Kamara and Connor Goldson were static while Alfredo Morelos was caught under it and the ball bounced to Mirko Ivanic. His control and lashed finished was too much for McGregor. Poor defending all round and only ten minutes gone.
McGregor made big saves again. It took a fine reaction to fling out his left hand and block Ivanic’s low shot when he got in behind James Tavernier. Cristiano Piccini unleashed a fizzing effort which McGregor again threw up an arm to stop. Milan Pavkov had a chance too but made a scruffy connection and clipped it wide after another ball over the top had turned Rangers.
The visitors looked anxious. They were surrendering possession too cheaply in midfield and failing to pick up loose balls. Too many of them were underperforming. Kent could not get going on the left and Joe Aribo offered little on the other side. It wasn’t Morelos’s night either. He got a number of shots away but none of them worked goalkeeper Milan Borjan.
They were tense. Red Star coach Dejan Stankovic was sufficiently animated to earn a booking before play was 20 minutes old. McGregor, taking his time at restarts, got a talking to from the Romanian referee but was spared a card.
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Another corner opened Rangers again at the start of the second half, this time from Kanga but mercifully there were no takers as the ball crossed the unprotected goalmouth. Sloppy play in midfield was then almost punished as Omi Omoijuanfo was released to run shoulder-to-shoulder with Calvin Bassey, holding him off and playing it square for what would have been a certain goal for Pavkov had the pass not been overhit.
And then, breathe. Kamara slipped a ball to release Kent in space at last. Puccini held his thigh in pain and slowed up, unable to catch him, and Kent hit a shot which deflected off Aleksandar Dragovic and looped over Borjan. The strike had no effect on the volume level from the home support — they kept up their unbroken chanting — but now they sounded like death rattles. The contest had been snuffed out.
Pride drove Red Star on. Ivanic drilled one effort across the goal and wide and then had a header saved. Kanga’s shot was beaten away by McGregor and El Fardou Ben Nabouhane’s rebound was tamely hit with the goal gaping. Rangers, relaxed now and moving it better, had a couple of chances to go ahead through Kemar Roofe before a penalty beat them in stoppage time. Kamara trod on Filippo Falco’s foot in the box and Ben Nabouhane stepped up to send McGregor the wrong way.
There’s nothing wrong about Rangers’ direction: onwards and upwards in Europe.
