Could Rangers Have Made That Any More Difficult For Themselves

Earlier this afternoon Rangers took to a plastic pitch to face FC Ufa for a final time.

We went into the Europa League Qualifying Play-Offs second leg tie with a 1-0 advantage courtesy of an Ibrox goal from Connor Goldson and Group Stage qualification was in our hands.

We couldn’t have started better as Ovie Ejaria found the net nine minutes into the first half and although nobody was daft enough to think it would then be easy, things went drastically wrong just after the half-hour mark as they found an equaliser.

Alfredo Morelos saw another rush of blood and found himself sent off six minutes after their goal after receiving two yellow cards within the space of seconds and then it was about holding on. That challenge became more difficult as Jon Flanagan also saw himself sent from the pitch in the 66th minute and then it really was batten down the hatches and ride out the storm.

With the score set at 2-1 in our favour with the away goal, the final ten minutes were tense.

Even more so when they had a goal disallowed two minutes into stoppage time for some reason, but we held on for a further two minutes until the referee blew the whistle.

God, we made hard work of that but a sterling rearguard action and a very organised performance by the nine lads who remained on the pitch see us through.

FC Ufa				Rangers
Sysuev (32)				Ejaria (9)
Belenov				McGregor
Tabidze				Tavernier
Alikin			52	Goldson
Nedelcearu				Katic
Zhivoglyadov				Flanagan
Salatic			76	Candeias			45
Paurevic				Jack
Jokic				Ejaria
Vanek				Arfield			70
Sysuev				Kent
Igboun				Morelos
Substitutes
Carp				Wallace
Zaseev				Sadiq
Tumsayan				Foderingham
Sukhov				Halliday			70
Krotov			76	McCrorie
Shelia				Lafferty			45
Oblyakov			52	Middleton

Game Statistics
26	Goal attempts	7
3	On Target	3
9	Corners	4
13	Fouls	13
3	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	2
0	%	0