RANGERS ‘stormed’ to victory at Easter Road with goals from Ridvan Yilmaz, Todd Cantwell and Cyriel Dessers.
The dark clouds of Isha and Jocelyn were long gone as the Light Blues’ managerial metronome, Philippe Clement, arrived in the capital hoping to tick off another win with little fuss.
La Manga training to Dumbarton raining was a wet-and-wild ‘welcome home’ to the Rangers squad as the fixtures and intensity increases across three competitions at home and Europe during the second half of the season.
Clement freshened up the side and made three changes to the starting line-up from Saturday night’s cup tie— with Jack Butland replacing Robby McCrorie in goal, Leon Balogun coming in for the suspended Connor Goldson and Fabio Silva making his first start as Cyriel Dessers dropped to the bench.
Referee Steven McLean’s whistle signalled the start of proceedings through the fog of the pre-match pyro party from the travelling Rangers fans.
However, there was little to spark much excitement in the stands during the opening period…. until the 30th minute when John Lundstram Pirlo’d a ball to Ridvan Yilmaz breaking into the box and young Turk finished it well to put the visitors one up.
Soon after and it was ‘Penalty to Rangers’ time for the officials to worry over. Jordan Obita took down Silva in the box, referee McLean waved it away and VAR waived any involvement.
Just before the break, Todd Cantell decided to get involved in his own inimitable way. Like a human highlight reel.
After getting kicked off the pitch (literally) and creating a scene between the opposing dugouts, he strolled back on non-plussed to set up James Tavernier for a shot which was well-saved by David Marshall — then a minute later he cut out the middle men and beat Marshall from the edge of the box with nonchalant rocket into the net to put Rangers 2-0 ahead.
Clement saw enough in those frantic few minutes before the break from Cantwell to keep him for bigger tests ahead as he replaced him with Tom Lawrence and took off Nico Raskin for Dujon Sterling.
Jack Butland’s super status was enhanced when he denied Myziane Maolida a debut goal before Hibs boss Nick Montgomery transformed the touchline into a revolving door of changes for a 15-minute spell.
Clement made more alterations too — the pick of them being Dessers, who was sent on for Silva and struck gold soon after with Rangers’ third as he pounced on a sloppy pass from the Hibs defence and prodded the ball home just inside the box to seal the points.
Rangers have a habit of not making heavy weather of tough games these days, which bodes well for a bright future in the months ahead.
Hibernian: Marshall, Megwa, Fish, Stevenson, Obita, Levitt, Newell, Tavares, Maolida, Youan, Vente. Substitutes: Johnson, Jeggo, Amos, Marcondes, McKirdy, Doidge, Molotnikov, Blaney, Whittaker.
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Souttar, Balogun, Yilmaz, Lundstram, Raskin, Cantwell, McCausland, Matondo, Silva. Substitutes: McCrorie, Jack, Dessers, Lawrence, Sterling, S Wright, Barisic, King, Devine.
Referee: Steven McLean
Attendance: 18,607
