RANGERS’ long-awaited return to Ibrox proved to be very much to their liking this evening.
Progress in the delayed redevelopment of the Copland Stand meant the Glasgow club could open the turnstiles at their Govan ground for the first time this season.
For the first time, in fact, since way back on May 14 when they thrashed Dundee 5-2 in the Premiership.
Philippe Clement’s men relished being back in familiar surroundings against the same opponents and eased into the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals thanks to a Cyriel Dessers brace and a second half James Tavernier penalty.
Rangers, who will now take on Malmo in their opening Europa League league phase match in Sweden on Thursday, are still not entirely convincing even in victory. Still, they kept alive their chances of retaining the trophy they lifted last December with a thoroughly professional display.
Here are five talking points from the encounter.
Job done
Clement, possibly because Rangers had three games in the space of eight days coming up, made three changes to the side which had recorded a narrow 1-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice last Sunday.
Dujon Sterling came in to central midfield as Mohamed Diomande dropped out, Vaclav Cerny took over from Kieran Dowell on the right flank after recovering from a sickness bug and new signing Nedjim Bajrami replaced Oscar Cortes on the left.
The hosts deserved to edge in front and could easily have been further ahead at half-time. Trevor Carson tipped an acrobatic effort from Dessers over his crossbar to keep the visitors on touch.
Clement, though, brought on Diomande for Sterling at the start of the second half in an attempt to inject a little more urgency into Rangers’ play and the substitution had the desired impact.
Dessers won a penalty at a Tavernier corner when he was wrestled to the ground by Mo Sylla and his skipper stepped up and converted the spot kick to open his account for the 2024/25 campaign.
Bajrami, the Albanian attacking midfielder who joined from Sassuolo in Italy for £3.4m last month, started for the first time and had some nice moments and supplied the assist for Dessers’ second.
Dundee defeated
Clement’s counterpart Tony Docherty responded to the 2-0 loss which his charges had suffered at the hands of Ross County in the Premiership up in Dingwall seven days ago by making no fewer than four changes.
Jon McCracken, Ethan Ingram, Josh Mulligan and Seb Palmer-Holden all dropped out and Carson, Jordan McGhee, Sammy Braybrooke and Oluwaseun Adewumi took their spots. That reshuffle saw the latter make his first start since joining on loan from Burnley.
The teenage midfielder had an opportunity to level when Sylla sent him through on Jack Butland. However, the goalkeeper got off his line quickly and cleared the ball before he could get to it.
It was one of a few scoring chances which the Dens Park outfit created. Butland denied a close range Simon Murray effort after half-time. But away sides have to capitalise fully on every opportunity they create at Ibrox to get a result and Dundee failed to do so.
Dessers at the double
Nobody could accuse the Rangers striker of lacking ruthlessness in the final third this evening.
The Nigerian internationalist failed to find the target against both Celtic and United in his last two outings. But he had his shooting boots on tonight and now has seven goals to his name for the season. He was a deserved recipient of the Man of the Match award when the final whistle blew.
Perhaps the arrival of Hamza Igamane, the Moroccan Under-23 internationalist who replaced him in the second half as Ross McCausland came on for Cerny, has helped to focus his mind.
The £1.7m acquisition has impressed in his appearances to date and was, despite not netting, a real handful for the Dundee defence this evening. He had three decent attempts during his time on the park and forced a couple of fine saves from Carson.
Tavernier back in the good books
The warm applause which the Rangers right back received from the home supporters in the 33,665-strong crowd when he was replaced by debutant Neraysho Kasanwirjo in the closing stages of the game suggested that he had won a few of them over with his showing.
His poor finish to last season, which coincided with Rangers’ late collapse in the league, led to calls for him to depart. He was singled out for personal abuse after the 3-0 loss at Parkhead at the start of the month. But the defender set up one goal and scored another this evening and looked a little more like his old self.
The Englishman and his team, though, have work to do in the weeks and months ahead to get their followers fully onside.
Ibrox homecoming
The top tier of the Copland Stand remained closed tonight and it is still unclear when it will be open an Ibrox will be back to full capacity again. But disabled Rangers fans took up their places in their new seats. The Union Bears, too, moved across from the Broomloan Stand.
The ultras group, as they had been in the Hampden matches against Motherwell, Dynamo Kyiv, St Johnstone and Ross County, were in fine voice and helped to create a decent atmosphere in a cup tie that was not on season tickets.
Clement acknowledged that being back at their spiritual home will help his side to perform at their best going forward.
“The fans feel good,” he said. “It's a big difference to playing at Hampden. It is another atmosphere. The fans are on top of the pitch, they give energy to the team. So now we aren't playing all our games like away games, no team in the world wants that. I do not want to use Hampden as an excuse, but it is a difference.”
