Gio van Bronckhorst is praying Alfredo Morelos can ride to Rangers’ rescue as he confirmed the Ibrox talisman is in contention for next week’s do-or-die showdown with Union Saint-Gilloise.
The Ibrox side’s Champions League chances have been left hanging by a thread after ragged Rangers were blown away in Leuven by the Belgian shock troops. Gers were forced to start with summer signing Antonio Colak up front with Morelos still not back up to full speed after tearing a thigh muscle back in March.
John Souttar and Ryan Kent also both failed to make the plane to Belgium after picking up knocks against Livingston on Saturday. Van Bronckhorst, however, is hopeful Kent will be ready to play some part in next week’s salvage mission. And he expects to have his Colombian ace fit and firing too as Gers seek to over-turn their 2-0 deficit at Ibrox. “Yeah I think that’s realistic,” said the Dutchman when quizzed on whether Morelos would be fit enough to feature.
“He’s been training with us for quite some time and is getting better and sharper every day. We also had him in the UEFA list for this round so hopefully he will continue and will be there next week.”
It was an awful display from the Europa League finalists just 76 days on from their brush with immortality in Seville. It got off to a woeful start when Jon McLaughlin let home skipper Teddy Teuma’s rasping drive slip through his fingers.
A controversial penalty award allowed Dante Vanzeir to put the Union two-up in Flanders. But van Bronckhorst reckons his side have McLaughlin to thank for the fact they are still in the tie after he made a brave block to prevent Vanzeir killing off the third-qualifying round late on.
The Scotland squad keeper has been handed the gloves for the first two games of the season, with last year’s No.1 Allan McGregor left on the bench. There are already some fans rethinking calls for McLaughlin to be named Gers’ first-choice stopper but GVB insists he’s standing by the 34-year-old.
Asked if he still had faith in the keeper, van Bronckhorst said: “He is starting. So there’s your answer. Of course 3-0 it would have been a bigger task for us.
“It is two goals difference, still the second game to be played and I’m sure the performance will be different next week. We are playing against a good opponent, if you see their last two years it is like a fairy tale and they are continuing their fairy tale.
“I want to be there with my players and the club competing for the Champions League group stage. That’s our aim and what we want to overturn next week, but not the way we played on Tuesday.”
Van Bronckhorst also criticised the decision to award Union a spot-kick after VAR alerted Bosnian ref Irfan Peljto to replays showing the ball striking Connor Goldson’s hand in the box. But the crucial call left the puzzled Ibrox boss given Teuma’s strike had bounced up towards the defender’s arm after taking a deflection off Ben Davies.
He said: “During the game, it went so fast that I missed it. But I saw the referee waiting and knew something had happened. When it went straight to VAR I knew it had to be a penalty decision, yes or no. When the referee goes to the screen then VAR thinks it’s a penalty. But I don’t know what the rules are. It looks like a really cheap penalty to me. I don’t know what we could have done. We try to block the shot, the ball rolls away from goal and hits Connor off the leg of Ben from maybe half a yard.
“I don’t know what the rules are but it’s cost us the second goal. That’s not in my influence. I cannot affect the decision of VAR. It’s a big tournament with a lot at stake for a lot of clubs. You would expect they take the right decisions but I’m more concerned today with the performance we had as a team. That’s my focus. What we have to do now is go 90 minutes and try and turn it around next week.”
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