IBROX CAN BE NERVY FOR BOTH SIDES ON THE BIG EUROPEAN OCCASION
Rangers came out to a cacophony of noise from their supporters at Ibrox, but Steven Gerrard’s men started the game in nervy fashion.
Passes went astray, runners weren’t picked up, and Glen Kamara had to look lively as he hooked Pepe’s header off the goalline.
Soares then went close with a free header, and Rangers needed something or someone to spark them into life.
Too often though they were sluggish on the ball, allowing Porto to press them high and regain possession far too easily.
Then, as he so often does, Alfredo Morelos set the famous old ground alight. His goal obliterated the nerves that had been pouring down from the stands, and suddenly Porto looked like rabbits in headlights as the noise around Ibrox swept the Rangers players forward and onto a swift second through Steven Davis. Never in doubt…
PORTO LEARNED THEIR LESSONS AND RANGERS HAD TO ADAPT
Rangers had a lot of joy playing down the wings in Porto, but the visitors had heeded that lesson from the first game between the sides and managed to nullify that threat from wide areas.
Alfredo Morelos was pulling wide to the left, but with Brandon Barker and Ryan Kent being forced back, he had little or no support when he received the ball. That resulted in the ball being pushed in-field far too often, where Porto were smothering the game.
It all made for a frustrating opening hour for the hosts, with the locals waiting with bated breath for blue touch paper to be lit.
Steven Gerrard reshuffled his pack by sending on Scott Arfield, and suddenly Rangers were finding room where there was none in the first half. They exploited it ruthlessly.
RYAN KENT IS GETTING CLOSER TO HIS BEST
It was for nights like these, and Old Firm games of course, that Rangers splashed out £7m to bring Ryan Kent back to Ibrox from Liverpool, and he tried his best to provide a spark on what had been a damp squib of an evening at times.
He is still a bit away from full match fitness though, and it was in the critical moments during this game that this was obvious, with his final pass or finish just a little lacking.
He fired high and wide from the edge of the area in the first half, before making a hash of a two-on-one situation in a rare Rangers opportunity before the break.
To his credit, he didn’t let his head drop, and he kept taking the ball and trying to carry the fight to the visitors, even if a shot from the edge of the area that flew well wide was typical of his final output.
That is all that was missing though, and he looked ominously close to being back at his top level.
ALFREDO MORELOS IS NOW MR RELIABLE
That the Colombian forward has always been a prodigious finisher has never been in doubt, but the well-documented issues over his mentality and his discipline now seem like distant memories.
This was a night that could have brought out the worst in Morelos in the past. For the vast majority of the game he didn’t get any change whatsoever out of the Porto defence, he was being niggled at every opportunity by opposing defenders and decisions weren’t going his way.
Instead of taking a huff and lashing out as he may have done once upon a time, he simply got on with the job at hand, waited for his chance and then gobbled it up to hurt the opposition in the best way possible. And what a finish it was.
THIS COULD BE THE PLATFORM FOR JAMES TAVERNIER TO GET BACK ON TRACK
The Rangers captain has had a rough time of it of late, and it looked as if it would be more of the same in the first half of this game as he struggled on the ball and had a few poor set-pieces.
That all changed after the break though, and he should take great confidence by the way he grew into the game and eventually played a major part in Rangers’ first goal as he outmuscled an opponent and got the ball wide to Jack. Much better from the skipper.
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