Rangers FC beat NK Osijek in the first leg of the second round of qualifiers of the Europa League in Croatia and the manager is happy that they have come out of mainland Europe with that all important away goal.
The Gers in no ways gave a top class performance on Thursday but their manager was pretty content with the result and emphasised on the fact that not every game was meant to be won with a swagger.
Gerrard went on to add that there were some games where they would have to grind out a draw and the Osijek match was one such game.
The Light Blues took the lead in the 18th minute courtesy of Alfredo Morelos and after that, they spend most of the ninety minutes defending their lead.
Rangers look a bit lacklustre in going forward and a part of that was because the manager chose to hand full debuts to two of his new recruits – Ryan Kent and Ovie Ejaria.
Both the youngsters are currently on loan with the Rangers outfit from Liverpool and despite coming to Scotland with high hopes, their first full game for the club was dipped in mediocrity.
Kent showed sparks of brilliance during the game but Osijek full-back Danijel Loncar was hardly troubled by the winger.
Ejaria was also average in his performance in midfield and failed to provide any real help going in attack.
And now the fans have called out the two Liverpool youngster asking them to up their game before the start of the new season.
Good result tonight but should have played Candeias down the right, not convinced Kent or Ejaria brought anything to the team
— Maverick_1969 (@Walter_Mather) July 26, 2018
Kent= industrious and confident but poor decision making in final 3rd.
Big Lass= doing big lass things. Snapped into tackles, decent touch, faded 2nd half
Ejaria= what I expected from an inexperienced youngster. Struggled for any meaningful ball. Impact player off bench for me— Brownie (@OzRNGR) July 26, 2018
3/ Kent – good performance, direct, defensively hard working too
Ejaria – worked hard, good on ball
Alfie – really good performance, good goal, good hold up play, worked his socks off— #DoYourJob (@gordyb1872) July 27, 2018
Midfield played well. Kent looks good the big guy in the middle looks good. Cousiably or however you spell his name. Other boy from Liverpool played decent. Rangers teams of recent years wouldn’t have held onto that result. Now home and hopefully finish the tie off.
— Kenny (@kenny0785) July 26, 2018
I’d probably still pick Windass over Ejaria tbh!
— Darren Armour (@DarrenArmour1) July 26, 2018
Rangers FC welcome NK Osijek next week in the second leg of the Europa League qualifiers and the fans will be hoping that the Light Blues can stamp their authority on the game on their home turf.
Read:Â Rangers’ transfer season might end in misery as Gerrard’s latest transfer target will not be moving to Ibrox.
Read:Â The real reason why Umar Sadiq failed to make the trip to Croatia for the Europa League clash.
Read:Â Rangers’ players rated after their 1-0 win against Osijek.
Read:Â Gerrard hails 22 Y/O as the man who can be the focus of a revival at Ibrox.
Read:Â Rangers looking to buy ‘this’ 21 Y/O midfielder who can also double up as a centre-back.
