The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Morelos seals win in Van Bronckhorst’s first game in charge
RANGERS 2 SPARTAPRAGUE 0
Alfredo Morelos’ brace earned Giovanni van Bronckhorst a win in his first game as Rangers boss last night as the Ibrox men secured Europa league football after Christmas.
The 2-0 win over Sparta Prague at Ibrox – coupled with Lyon’s 3-1 win over Brondby – ensured Rangers can’t be pipped for second spot.
Morelos opened the scoring in 15 minutes with a cool finish and sealed the win when cashing in a mistake early in the second half.
l West Ham waltzed into the last 16 of the Europa League with a game to spare after a 2-0 victory at Rapid Vienna.
First-half goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Mark Noble wrapped up top spot in Group H for David Moyes’ side.
It was an important victory for the Hammers as they are now straight through to the knockout stage having avoided a play-off in February against a team dropping down from the Champions League.
With Vienna in a new coronavirus lockdown the match was played in an empty stadium, with Rapid unable to call on their fans to lift them, and West Ham simply had too much class.
l Leicester are now top of the Europa League Group C after a 3-1 win over Legia Warsaw at the King Power Stadium. On the scoresheet were Patson Daka, James Maddison and Wilfred Ndidi.
l Tottenham endured one of the most embarrassing nights in their history as they were beaten by the lowestranked team in the Europa Conference League, going down 2-1 to NS Mura in Maribor.
New boss Antonio Conte will have watched on with horror as his side lost at the death to a team with a Uefa coefficient ranking of 341.
Even though they were reduced to 10 men just after the half-hour when Ryan Sessegnon was sent off, Spurs should still have had enough to see off opposition who had lost their previous four games in the competition and are mid-table in the Slovenian league.
Instead they lost to Amadej Marosa’s stoppage-time goal after Harry Kane had earlier cancelled out Tomi Horvat’s shock opener.
The defeat means Spurs will likely have to beat Rennes in their final game to be assured of qualification for the knockout stages and they can no longer qualify as group winners, meaning they will have to play an extra round.
It was another night of disappointment for those hoping for the chance to impress Conte, with Dele Alli particularly poor and not lasting beyond 52 minutes, and the Italian has further evidence of just how big a job he faces in north London.