By James Gentry
Having had a disappointing start to the 2023/24 Scottish Premiership campaign with a 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock on the opening day of the season, Rangers quickly got back on track and secured a 2-1 first leg win over Servette in our Qualifying Third Round Champions League challenge.
Thankfully this weekend, things got better on a domestic front as we took a very commanding 4-0 win over Livingston to get ourselves properly up and running, and now fans and manager Michael Beale will be looking forward to Tuesday’s second leg clash where we hopefully make it three wins from four and progress to the next stage. For fans who like a flutter, Full teams statistics and predictions for the Champions League could well help you choose how you place your sensible bets in the coming days.
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The Livingston win was ultimately a frustrating one. Having taken the lead through Sam Lammers in the 10th minute of the game, despite utterly dominating the clash, we had to wait until the final 12 minutes of the match to fully establish our dominance and put the game out of sight.
Late efforts from Danilo (Pereira da Silva), Abdallah Sima and Kieran Dowell’s (in fairness, stunning effort) saw four players open their goalscoring accounts for the year.
There were plenty of positives to take as we move forward towards the rest of the year, and clearly Beale was pleased with the efforts on the day, telling BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsround after the final whistle.
“The game was in three parts, maybe. The first part, really good – get 1-0 up, get 2-0 and then obviously the VAR goes against us. No problem with that but I felt after that we were a bit slow and sticky. Livingston reduced the spaces for us. It did get a bit nervy in the stadium. The changes had a big impact on the game and there were a lot of positives by the end of it. We were wasteful in the middle part of the game. We had good positions on the pitch and our last decision was really poor.”
He went on to explain.
“Hugely important for players to get their first Rangers goal. For five of the boys to score their first goal this week, that will do them a wealth of good. Jack Butland getting his first clean sheet, Dujon Sterling making his debut. Jose Cifuentes was probably the pick of the players today, along with John Souttar. Overall, it’s been a big eye opener for them as a week. As a team, we’ve shown a bit of everything. We’ve shown some good play, we’ve shown some poor play as well. We’re a work in progress.”
Pre season saw Rangers basically prove that they were a new work in progress and players certainly needed additional time to gel properly and form a real understanding, whilst also executing the gaffers specific instructions properly – and on that front, Beale’s summation is pretty much spot on.
When it worked, we looked good and we looked dangerous – but there were also a number of times when very promising attacks broke down at crucial moments simply through a bad decision. It was a game that showed promise though, and future games should certainly show far more consistency as it all comes together.