BORNA AGAIN
3-4
Late Barisic penalty gives Rangers lead in last-32 tie.
STEVEN Gerrard may have entered the Rangers record books last night when he oversaw his 23rd European victory as manager on an evening of quite incredible drama in Flanders.
Yet, the fact that the Ibrox club are now near certainties to progress to the last-16 of the Europa League for the second year running as a result of a gutsy second-half fightback in an incident-packed encounter will have given him far greater satisfaction than any personal landmark.
The runaway Premiership leaders, perhaps spurred on by a sense of injustice after being the victims of a shocking refereeing decision in the eighth minute of added-on time at the end of the first-half, scored three times after halftime to triumph 4-3.
The Govan club were trailing 2-1 at the end of the opening 45 minutes and it was looking ominous for them following the loss of their captain James Tavernier and striker Kemar Roofe to injury.
But two Borna Barisic penalties and a sensational solo effort by substitute Ryan Kent secured an utterly remarkable victory.
They were comfortably the better team throughout and created enough chances in the final third to put the outcome of the double header beyond any doubt. Still, it is very hard to see them slipping up now.
Gerrard sprang a few surprises in his starting line-up by leaving out Leon Balogun, Ryan Jack and Kent.
Filip Helander, whose only appearance in the group stage came in the 3-3 draw with Benfica in Portugal in November, started at centrehalf ahead of Balogun.
Arfield only made his comeback from a six-week injury lay-off at Ibrox on Saturday as a substitute with two minutes remaining but Gerrard preferred him to Jack due to the ongoing issue the Scot has with his knee. Kent, too, was left on the bench due to a slight knock.
VAR is in use in the knockout rounds of this competition and it was deployed in just the fourth minute when Pieter Gerkens handled the ball inside his own area. But the replay showed the defender’s arm was at his side and no penalty was given.
Tavernier’s problems started soon after that when he was the victim of a crunching tackle by Felipe Avenatti wide on right touchline. It was a bad challenge and probably merited a yellow card. The match official took no action.
Tavernier injured himself challenging Martin Hongla for a 50-50 ball n the middle of the park shortly after that. He soldiered on bravely for a few minutes before sitting down on the turf and receiving treatment. He hobbled off and promptly went on again. But after one kick of the ball his night was over.
In ordinary circumstances Gerrard would have thrown on Nathan Patterson. But the young defender was self-isolating back home in Scotland after breaking coronavirus restrictions along with four of his team-mates on Saturday night.
Balogun replaced his skipper. Having started in five out of the six Group D matches, the Nigeria internationalist was a more-than-able deputy even if he was asked to play out of position.
The setback, though, didn’t affect Rangers. Indeed, the promptly created two giltedged scoring chances. Roofe had an attempt blocked after being supplied by Aribo and Morelos fired straight at Beiranvand after an
outstanding pass upfield from Barisic.
The opener came eight minutes before half-time and stemmed from a mistake by the Antwerp goalkeeper. But it had been coming. Aurelio Buta nudged a long ball from Connor Goldson back towards Beiranvand under pressure from Roofe only for his teammate to spill it.
Morelos pounced and laid it back to Aribo who kept his composure and curled beyond covering centre-half Maxime Le Marchand. But the away side were trailing when the half-time whistle blew after conceding a criminally soft equaliser and then being the victims of a harsh refereeing decision.
Barisic gave away a freekick in a dangerous area just outside his penalty box and then, despite Felipe Avenatti standing 6ft 5in in his stocking feet, failed to jump for the Refaleov delivery. The striker rose well and his header looped into the top left corner.
Roofe hobbled off injured and was replaced by Kent, who had
been left out of the starting line-up due to a slight niggle. But matters quickly got worse for Rangers.
In the seventh minute of added-on time at the end of the first-half Refaleov threw himself to ground after a slightest of touches by Steven Davis and Bulgarian match official Georgi Kabakov pointed to the spot. There had
only been minimal contact. But the decision stood after a quick VAR review.
Refaelov stepped forward to take it and slotted beyond McGregor to give Franky Vercauteren’s men a lead their play in the opening 45 minutes had scarcely deserved.
Justice was perhaps done in the second-half when Rangers benefitted from the presence of modern technology. Morelos had his shirt pulled by Ritchie De Laet as he attempted to get on the end of a Barasic cross. After watching the incident back on a pitchside monitor, Kabakov gave another penalty.
With Tavernier no longer on the pitch Barisic stepped forward to try his luck from 12 yards. His strike wasn’t particularly impressive, but it had enough power to beat Beiranvand.
Hongla gave Antwerp the lead once again just eight minutes but Rangers were far from done.
Kent got his side back on level terms with seven minutes of regulation time remaining when he beat one man, played a neat one-two with Morelos, beat another one and rifled home.
The winger then won a penalty that Barisic, making his 100th appearance for his club, buried in the final minute, when his shot was handled by Abdoulaye Seck, who was ordered off for his second bookable offence, in the Antwerp area.