Rangers FC Return to Ibrox with Comfortable Win at Home Against Dundee

It was their first match back home at the newly renovated Ibrox Stadium, and Rangers FC duly obliged their passionate support with a comfortable 3-0 win in the League Cup quarter-final against Dundee.

There were first ever matches at Ibrox for seven new players signed in the summer transfer window, including Pröpper, Jefté, Barron, Černy, Bajrami, Kasanwirjo, and Igamane—with loan signing Neraysho Kasanwirjo making his Rangers FC debut.

Rangers FC Line-Up

First XI: Jack Butland, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Robin Pröpper, Jefté, Connor Barron, Dujon Sterling, Václav Černy, Tom Lawrence, Nedim Bajrami, Cyriel Dessers.

Bench: Kelly, Kasanwirjo, Balogun, Diomande, Raskin, McCausland, Cortés, Dowell, Igamane.

On the Pitch

Rangers were in control throughout, keeping 59% of the possession, taking 18 shots with 11 on target, and winning seven corners.

Cyriel Dessers opened the scoring in the 18th minute with an assist from club captain James Tavernier. With not much else of note to happen in the first half, Philippe Clement brought on Mohamed Diomande for Sterling.

Four minutes later, Mohamed Sylla brought Dessers down into the box, and Tavernier converted coolly from the spot on 50 minutes to double the lead for the Light Blues.

In the 66th minute, Dessers got the better of Dundee’s defense once more, slotting home his second of the match from Nedim Bajrami’s assist.

Clement made two changes in the 68th minute, bringing on McCausland and Igamane for Černy and Dessers. Cortés replaced Bajrami in the 73rd minute, and finally, Kasanwirjo came on for Tavernier in the 81st minute.

Match Reactions

Philippe Clement spoke to RangersTV after the match:

“It was well deserved and we got what we wanted, qualification but also in a good way with good football.

“I am happy to be back at Ibrox, we missed that so much and happy to give the fans what they got today.

“That is what they want and you hear it after the game, that is super important for all of us, staff, players, everybody and we need to continue in this way.

“It is just the start with a lot of new faces and a lot of new players but it was important to have a really good first experience of Ibrox for them.

“Of course it is always important to make this second goal and the third to kill the belief but we could have scored the second one in the first half.

“We had enough chances to do that.”

Cyriel Dessers expressed his delight when speaking to RangersTV:

“It was nice to score at Hampden, but scoring at Ibrox is a different feeling.

“It’s a good feeling to be back and we wanted to show something to the fans and we gave them a beautiful night.

“I thought we played a good game and it was good to see some connections with the players up front with Nedim, Tom and Vaclav.

“I think you could see there was something building and growing and that’s exciting.

“It’s nice to play with the boys, they are all very good football players and that helps as a striker to have them around me.

“With the connections you know by eye contact or movement you can feel each other and that’s a good thing. It is only the beginning and hopefully that gets better.

“We want to defend our trophy. We had success last season and it was a beautiful moment.

“We know the feeling and we want to have that feeling back and defend the trophy.”

Up next for Rangers is the UEFA Europa League when they visit Scania in Sweden to face Malmö FF on Thursday 26th September before playing host to Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership at Ibrox on Sunday, the 29th.