Rangers faced their toughest opponents of the young season by going on the road to face FC Midtjylland and came away with an impressive and entertaining 4-2 victory.
This week was pegged as a difficult one in Europe for all three of the Scottish Teams still playing. After facing a pair of clearly overmatched opponents in Europe and Kilmarnock’s deep box in Scotland, Rangers faced their most challenging task of the season and passed with flying colors.
It was clear from very early-on that Midtjylland was a quality side. Rangers were not exactly on the back foot, but Midtjylland saw plenty of the ball and often did quite well with it.
The danger that Midtjylland showed from set-pieces and crosses was also obvious from the start. Featuring several forward players with excellent size, there was more than one instance where tension ran high as Rangers tried to win headers.
Through the entire first half, there was a great deal of back and forth, with both sides showing exciting attacking moves. But neither side could crack the opposing defense until the 43rd minute when Jame Tavernier sent in a beautiful ball that Alfredo Morelos headed hard and down that went through the keeper’s legs and into net.
Rangers went into the break with a hard-fought 1-0 lead, but the match was going to get much wilder.
Early in the second half, Rangers got onto the score-sheet again as Jordan Jones took the ball at the edge of his own box and took it all the way to the opposing box before laying it off to Joe Aribo who was able to make a hard and low shot just past the goalkeeper for goal number 2.
Then, only minutes later, a corner kick was taken by Alfredo Morelos who controlled it on the volley to pass over to a waiting Nikola Katic who fired the ball into the net for 3-0.
At this point, it looked as though the route was on, but Midtjylland showed their quality by striking back immediately with a pair of goals. The first off a low cross and the second off a free shot from the edge of the box.
But Rangers showed their quality once again as they stabilized from the sudden flurry and added the 4th and final goal as James Tavernier played the ball up to Morelos who found Scott Arfield in the middle of the box who passed the ball into the net.
it was an excellent match, in quality and entertainment, and an excellent result for Rangers who head into the second leg with essentially a 3 goal advantage due to the away goal tie-breaker.
Several players could earn man of the match, Jordan Jones was spectacular, Nikola Katic was excellent on defense and scored a goal, but Alfredo Morelos was the man of the night with a goal and a pair of assists.