By Craig Rae
Rangers continued their preparations for season 2023/2024 with a lacklustre 3-1 defeat to Olympiacos at Ibrox.
Before the match, a minute of silence was held as a mark of respect for former player Trevor Francis who sadly passed away on Monday.
Nico Raskin nearly opened the scoring after just four minutes when his spectacular volley was saved well for the goalkeeper, it would have been some way for the Belgian to open his Rangers account.
New signings Lammers and Dessers were starting for the first time together and it was the former who came close after a twisting and turning the Olympiacos defence, but his effort was saved.
The Dutchman has probably been the standout of pre-season and fans will be looking forward to seeing him play behind Dessers and the incoming Danilo.
Rangers rarely threatened in the first half out with the two individual efforts, and after a defensive mix up involving Ben Davies and it was the Greeks who took the lead on the stroke of half-time after Fortounis scored.
The Englishman was hooked at half time for young Yfeko whilst McLaughlin replaced McCrorie in goals.
The second period started in a much more inspiring fashion with Todd Cantwell winning a penalty after some nice link up play between him and Lammers, Tavernier stepped up and of course scored to equalise.
The joy was short lived, however as the Greeks retook the lead in the 57th minute after some good play down the right feed in El Arabi, and after hitting the post his effort was eventually bundled in by Carvalho to give Olympiacos the lead.
Shortly after, Michael Beale made some reactionary changes to the team as Lundstram, Sakala and Yilmaz came on to try and change matters on the field.
Lundstram looked lethargic and gave the ball away on several occasions before he sat off Carvalho and allowed him to take a shot from outside the box that rolled past McLaughlin for his second of the evening.
With the game all but done, Beale gave more minutes to Matondo and Hagi with Matondo coming on and both combined to create a chance, but Matondo’s effort could only be saved by Paschalakis.
Youngsters Bailey Rice and Zak Lovelace managed to get some game time nearer the end, but the score ended 3-1 to the Greeks.
It was only a friendly, of course, but the lack of cohesion in the team only a week out from the season opener is a bit of a concern -still, if you are going to be bad, you may as well be bad in pre-season.
Up next, pre-season is rounded off with a trip to Germany to take on Hoffenheim before next Saturday’s League opener at Rugby Park.
Rangers: McCrorie (McLaughlin), Tavernier, Souttar, Dessers (Sakala), Cantwell, Lammers, Sima (Matondo), Dowell (Lundstram), Davies, Barisic (Yilmaz), Raskin (Hagi)
Olympicacos: Paschalakis, Retsos, Camara, Fortounis, Iborra, El Arabi, Ruiz, Masouras, Carvalho, Alemida, Ntoi
Attendance: 29,007
