By Robert McElroy
Fenerbahce 1 (Djiku 30) Rangers 3 (Cerny 2 [42, 81], Dessers 6)
Attendance 42,090
Rangers took a major step towards the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday evening in Istanbul with a quite superb performance to defeat Fenerbahce 3-1 in the First Leg of the last-sixteen tie.
The ‘Sukru Saracoglu’ Stadium is one of the most fearsome and hostile arenas involved in UEFA competitions- and yet Rangers imposed themselves totally against a side widely regarded as one of the most formidable left in the tournament.
Barry Ferguson – in his first European tie as Interim Manager, albeit in Asia, made two changes from the debacle against Motherwell on Saturday with John Souttar and Connor Barron coming in for Ianis Hagi and Hamza Igamane.
The game kicked in a thunderous, raucous atmosphere with Rangers wearing red and black tops and lining up with five at the back.
The Ibrox men got off to the perfect start, opening the scoring in the sixth minute when Cyriel Dessers rounded home ‘keeper Irfan Can Egribayat to net following good work by Vaclav Cerny and Mohamed Diomande.
The Turks were soon forcing the play in search of an equaliser – Youssef En-Nesyri seeing his left-foot shot from a Filip Kostic cross flash just over on nineteen minutes then shortly afterwards Edin Dzeko saw a low shot from En-Nesyri’s lay-off turned wide by Jack Butland.
Just before the half-hour mark Rangers suffered yet another injury blow when Robin Propper collided with Butland, the central defender suffering what appeared to be a serious head knock, with Leon Balogun substituting.
The scores were level on the half-hour when Fenerbahce substitute Alexander Djiku hooked the ball home following a Sebastian Szymanski corner. It was a superb strike – but yet again Rangers had conceded from a dead-ball situation.
The Turks now scented blood – but the Ibrox men regained the lead before the interval when Cerny played a one-two with Dessers before slotting the ball home.
Rangers fully deserved their half-time lead – and six minutes after the restart Dessers had the ball in the net once again when he converted the loose ball after Egribayat had parried a Nico Raskin shot. Spanish Referee Alejandro Hernandez and his linesman saw no issue with the goal – but the intervention of VAR ruled offside, a tight decision to say the least.
Exactly the same thing incredibly happened just six minutes later when from a Jefte opening Dessers found the back of the net only for VAR to again rule offside by the slimmest of margins – to the chagrin of the ‘Gers centre, Barry Ferguson, and the Light Blue legions.
Fenerbahce not unexpectedly took heart from these escapes – and Sofyan Amrabat was close in the 69th minute when his 25-yard left-foot shot whistled just wide.
A double substitution on 75 minutes saw Ianis Hagi and Dujan Sterling introduced for Diomande and Yilmaz.
The next goal was always going to be important in term of the overall outcome of the tie – and it was Cerny who supplied it in the 81st minute when he raced clear on a Jefte through-ball to coolly net.
Dessers was still hungry for more – but was denied by Egribayat soon afterwards and the final chance of the evening fell in injury time to Fenerbahce when Anderson Talisca’s thirty-yard effort was turned wide by Butland
A tremendous performance and result for Rangers, who did not have a single failure – but it is only half-time with the Second Leg to be played next Thursday evening at Ibrox.
Fenerbahce: Egribayat; Soyuncu (Djiku 16), Skriniar, Akcicek (Talisca 46); Muldur (Kahveci 79), Amrabat, Tadic, Szymanski (Saint-Maximin 54), Kostic; En-Nesyri, Dzeko
Unused Subs: Livakovic, Tosun, Tograk, Yandas, Cetin
Rangers: Butland; Yilmaz (Sterling 75), Tavernier, Souttar, Propper (Balogun 28), Jefte; Cerny (Lawrence 87), Diomande (Hagi 75), Raskin, Barron; Dessers (Igamane 87)
Unused Subs: Bajrami, Curtis, Kelly, McCausland, Nsiala, Danilo, Rice
Referee: Alejandro Hernandez (Spain)
