Ibrox men give themselves a fighting chance
RANGERS’ first leg of their Europa League last-16 match-up against Benfica ended in a 2-2 draw leaving the tie perfectly poised for the second leg in a week’s time.
It was a lively start to the match at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, which holds almost 65,000 supporters but was far from full with an attendance of just under 49,000, of which 3000 were Rangers fans last night.
It didn’t take long for the game to spark into action, with Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande trying an ambitious shot at goal within seconds of the opening whistle.
Just minutes later, Benfica had their first corner of the match, which ultimately ended up in the hands of Rangers keeper, Jack Butland, who then made an impressive save a couple of minutes later.
With only seven minutes gone and Benfica pressing, Rangers managed to snatch possession and from a cross from Diomande, Tom Lawrence was given a free header and powered the ball into the bottom righthand corner of Benfica’s net giving the Scottish side a dream start to the tie.
Benfica are the reigning Portuguese champions but came into this tie having lost back-to-back matches for the first time this season, their most recent result being a 5-0 hammering by city rivals, Porto, last weekend.
The Portuguese side are in this competition having dropped down from the Champions League before beating Toulouse in their play-off round last month to get to this stage while Rangers’ last outing in Europe was their impressive win over Real Betis three months ago which ensured they topped their group.
And it was Rangers who looked in control for much of the opening 45 minutes, with that early goal stunning their hosts and as the first half wore on, Benfica’s pressure became less and less intense.
As the half-time whistle approached, however, Butland produced another good save before, in added time, John Soutar made a fatal error by heading the ball onto his own hand and, after a VAR review, referee Tobias Stieler, confirmed Benfica had a penalty.
Butland was booked for delaying the taking of the penalty but Benfica’s Angel Di Maria was unfazed, coolly slotting the ball home to make it 1-1.
Rangers weren’t done for the first half just yet, though, with Benfica’s keeper, Anatoliy Trubin, making a mess of a cross which allowed Fabio Silva to roll the ball to Dujon Sterling who finished first time just seconds before the whistle blew for half-time with rangers 2-1 ahead.
The second half began, unsurprisingly, with Benfica trying to pile the pressure on the visitors, although few concrete chances emerged.
However, in the 68th minute, a deep free-kick was taken by Angel Di Maria deep free-kick and, with little warning, was headed into his own net by Rangers’ Connor Goldson to see the hosts draw level at 2-2.
The closing stages of the game were end to end but neither side could make a breakthrough to snatch the win, with Rangers heading home to Glasgow with an excellent result.
The second leg will take place at Ibrox next Thursday as Rangers bid to reach the quarter-finals.