THE UNHAPPY HALF-CENTURY
No celebrating 50th Euro tie for Gerrard as Lyon turn on style
STEVEN Gerrard’s 50th game in Europe brought no cards, cake or candles. His prediction that Lyon would be the toughest challenge his side had faced in continental competition in four seasons was proved only too accurate.
Coach of Bayer Leverkusen when the Germans won 3-1 in the last 16 of the Europa League in March last year, Peter Bosz is making a habit of winning at Ibrox.
Top seeds in Group A, the French side travelled to Glasgow and inflicted the first defeat in a group game on Gerrard’s Rangers in ten matches.
Even without Moussa Dembele — the former Celtic striker with a proven track record of winning at this old ground — Lyon were comfortably the better team.
With four goals in his last three games, Dembele’s absence removed some of their attacking edge. Yet Gerrard had warned his players against a false sense of security.
Lyon, said the former England captain, had strength in the final third. It will give him no great satisfaction that he was right about that as well.
The visitors overcame a hesitant start, when Rangers looked full of vim and promise, to score an outstanding goal after 23 minutes. Thereafter they never looked back.
Cameroon international Karl Toko Ekambi played against Rangers for Villarreal in a 0-0 draw in Gerrard’s first season in charge.
Describing the Ibrox atmosphere as something more likely to inspire rather than frighten, the inspiration was a sight to behold when he cut in from the left, ghosted past John Lundstram and curled a quite sublime strike into the corner of the net past the futile dive of Allan McGregor.
Much of the damage for Rangers was self inflicted. Ryan Kent had possession in a crowded centre circle and gifted it straight to a Lyon player. Two passes later, Ekambi was scampering down the left flank with one thing in his mind. The shot started five yards outside the post and curled inside perfectly.
Kent didn’t have the best of nights. The English winger was also guilty of losing possession on the edge of Rangers’ penalty are for the James Tavernier own goal which killed the game as a contest after 55 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, the £7.5million signing from Liverpool pulled up and limped from the pitch with an apparent hamstring injury which could curtail his involvement for some weeks. For Rangers, it was that kind of night.
Despite controlling the opening exchanges, the lack of aggression and pressing from the home team was strange and uncharacteristic. At times they were oddly passive.
The home team had their best spell at the end of the first half when the game hung delicately in the balance.
In the second period, Lyon passed the ball with confidence and shifted through the gears, Rangers fans restricted to screaming in frustration as one decision after another went the way of the visitors.
The tone was set in the first half when Bruno Guimaraes leaned into Lundstram and eased the midfielder off the ball in the area. Andreas Ekberg was unimpressed and VAR — rightly — saw no need for a second look.
During that spell Rangers were at their best. Joe Aribo offered a response of sorts when he made space for a low angled shot, pushed out by Anthony Lopes.
The Lyon keeper was saving his best for late, when Rangers finally began to work up a head of steam. Lundstram cut the ball on to his left foot and dragged a shot inches wide from 18 yards after decent link play by Kent and Alfredo Morelos.
Kent came closest to atonement for his part in Lyon’s goal five minutes before half-time.
Morelos so often saves his best for these nights and his control and pass set Borna Barisic clear on the left. A low ball to the feet of Kent gave the winger time to spin his man and make space to pass the ball towards the bottom left hand corner of the net.
It looked in all the way, Lopes leaping to his feet and punching the air after a world-class piece of goalkeeping turned the ball round the post.
At half-time Rangers were still in it. Just. Lyon could have gone two ahead when the technical brilliance of Brazilian Lucas Paqueta — a joy to watch — sent sent Houssem Aouar scurrying into the area. Raising his head, the No 8 picked out Malo Gusto, the right-back sweeping a very decent chance past the right hand post from 15 yards.
Closing down the space too often occupied by Lyon players would be key to Rangers turning the game around. Kent had a spring in his step. And yet, while his loss of possession for one goal was human, the lack of control which contributed to the French side’s second goal ten minutes into the second half was careless. Winning the ball, then swiftly losing it on the edge of his own area, the classy Paqueta’s angled ball gave Aouar a clear run on goal. McGregor’s fine block halted Lyon’s momentum for a second
or two. But they weren’t done yet, the ball falling for Islam Slimani six yards out. An unconvincing strike cannoned off Connor Goldson and struck James Tavernier before finally trickling over the line.
While Slimani claimed it, the strike goes down as an own goal for the Rangers captain, whose team were now facing a task so uphill it was mountainous.
Replacing Steven Davis with Scott Wright was an attacking move. Two goals down at home, with half an hour to play in front of a restless crowd, Gerrard (pictured) had to find a foothold back into the game.
Wright’s first contribution was the winning of a useful free-kick after a clattering challenge by Jerome Boateng. A set-piece 25 yards from goal offered a chance of swift redemption for skipper Tavernier — and he almost took it. A dipping, swerving strike crashed against the outside of the upright and out of play. For an exasperated home support it was a rare moment of hope.
A mixed old night for Kent ended with 20 minutes to play, the winger pulling up with a hamstring problem likely to sideline him for a few weeks at least. Already without Filip Helander for the foreseeable future, this was a sobering way for Steven Gerrard to mark a half century of games in Europe.