FROM NO ONE TO SPECIAL ONE
WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR MAILSPORT As loan kid Ryan Kent didn’t leave his mark on Bundesliga. After his wonder show against Dortmund, EVERYONE is talking about him
Ryan Kent had been in Germany before and barely got noticed at Freiburg.
But by Friday morning over here, EVERYONE was talking about him.
Even I wasn’t aware that the Rangers winger had previously had a loan spel l in the Bundesliga as a youngster from Liverpool.
At that time he clearly didn’t show what he was fully capable of.
But the way he performed against Borussia Dortmund?
The Germans certainly know all about him now.
Kent was all over the pitch and absolutely fantastic for the entire match.
What he did for Rangers’ third goal on Thursday, as he destroyed two Dortmund defenders, was unbelievable.
But it just topped off what was a phenomenal night for my old club.
Gio van Bronckhorst’s boys didn’t just win 4-2, they actually DESERVED to win by that margin – or maybe even more. That’s how good they were.
I rushed back f rom my boy’s training session to see the game at home on TV.
At t imes I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Over here, the Germans viewed Rangers as a ‘normal’ team. They didn’t see them as top-class opposition.
And, of course, maybe we haven’t achieved great things in Europe in recent years.
But I’ve always said Glasgow Rangers are a very dangerous team to play against.
That proved to be the case on Thursday night.
In Germany, the reaction from Borussia supporters is one of major disappointment.
They’re shocked at their team’s performance.
But this should all be about Rangers.
Marco Rose didn’t expect them to play like that. Gio set up his team to really put them under pressure and it worked a treat.
Against a team like Dortmund you have to take away their joy of playing football the way they want to play it.
And that’s exactly what Rangers d id. They were absolutely magnificent.
I think Giovanni must have read my MailSport column last week and knew what to do.
Ser ious ly, I sa id that
I rush to wat ed ch hom TV e and gam beli coul eon eve dn’t I wha saw t
Dortmund have great individual players but that they don’t play as a team.
Rangers, on the other hand, were so together on the pitch. That was a team putting everything together on the night.
To score four goals away in Dortmund is incredible.
But this is the problem when a big club draws Rangers in
Europe. On the face of it, they think it should be easy because it’s a Scottish club and look forward to it because of the atmosphere in Glasgow.
But trust me, no one should want to play Rangers in Europe.
In the best possible way, Gio’s boys showed Dortmund no respect, in terms of going after them in the game. They had to press them at the back because that’s where Dortmund are weak.
It ’ s just unfortunate for Rangers that there is no away goals rule now.
That would have made the second leg at Ibrox a different ball game altogether.
I can’t believe that in the first year of changing it Rangers
scored four in Dortmund. It’s a shocking rule!
So now a 2- 0 or 3-1 win for Dortmund on Thursday would take the tie to extra-time.
Rangers have put themselves in a great position but they can’t afford to take anything for granted this week.
They have to approach the game at Ibrox in exactly the same way as they did in Dortmund.
Put them under pressure, go for it from the start and we will have every chance to go through to the last 16.
It’s a difficult situation for Gio, having that result in the back of your mind.
He knows they can lose by a goalatgoalat IbroxIbroxandstillgothroughandstillgothrough to the last 16.
But that’s a dangerous mindset to have.
My advice to him and the team would be to go out and win at Ibrox too.
They know how to beat Dortmund now and with 50,000 supporters behind them the atmosphere is going to be magic.
And if they can score an early goal then everyone will want to be in that stadium.
The flip side to that is that Dortmund are capable of scoring anywhere in Europe – especially if their star man Erling Haaland comes back.
If Haaland is fit he’s so good that he can win the game by himself.
If he’s at his best then he can destroy teams.
It’s crazy to think you score four goals away in Dortmund and the tie still isn’t over. But it’s not.
Rangers, though, still have a huge advantage.
We’re favourites to go through and the players now have to put the tie to bed.
And with the k ind of team performance they produced in the f irst leg in
Germany, they can beat any side left in the Europa League.
That’s what they can achieve when they work as a unit.
The boys can be so proud of their performance but now they have to do it over and again. That’s the challenge at Rangers and it’s what we expect from our team. Starting with Dundee United at Tannadice today, which is another massive game.
Get the three points and then refocus on Dortmund before what could be one of the best nights in the club’s history.