EUROPA LEAGUE IT’S A KIND OF HAGI

Winger’s brace fires an unlikely Rangers fightback

Rangers survived. Just. They were struggling but had to hope their rivals would blow themselves out after such a turbo-charged opening spell.

And in the 24th minute the Scots showed they could get at the visiting defence and ought to have levelled.

Hagi found Alfredo Morelos with a deft pass and all of a sudden the man who had plundered 14 goals in this tournament was clean through on Matheus in the Braga goal.

Ibrox held its breath as Morelos pulled the trigger and then groaned as the ball bulleted off the keeper’s right leg.

As the half hour approached the same combination again got in behind and again Matheus blocked Morelos.

The striker did manage to earn a booking for dissent after being pulled up for a foul on Viana – yet again his indiscipline proved costly because he’ll now miss next week’s return leg.

Braga’s pressing game forced Gers into an error in the 50th minute and Fransergio hit the bar from 20 yards.

Gerrard had to change it and in the 53rd minute Kamara was hooked for Aribo.

But it was Braga who raced up the pitch and a rat-a-tat of passes gave Ruiz space to run at the home defence before angling a lovely shot into Mcgregor’s bottom corner.

Within six minutes Hagi had Ibrox in raptures with a superb goal. A drop of the shoulder, a shuffle of the ball on to his left and a deadly low finish gave his team hope.

In the 74th minute Aribo went on a rampaging run past four defenders before planting the ball into the net.

The stadium shook but was nothing compared to the explosion that greeted Hagi’s second goal in the 81st minute.

BRAGA THE NET Ianis Hagi lashes in his first goal (above) and celebrates his winner