Here is Ewan Murray’s match report. That’s all from me, thank for reading and see you next time.
Ryan Kent speaks to BT: “[The atmosphere] was incredible, the fans all around were amazing, and to progress into the next round tops it all off. We came here to win ... but the ultimate goal was to progress to the next round ... we had a game plan and we stuck to it.
“We kept it nice compact at the back and looked to hit on the break ... I think you can create your own luck in football. We defended as a team and attacked as a team and we got what we wanted.
“Each year we want to progress more and we’ve managed to do that ... we’ve got to have some sort of belief, having made it this far.”
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Ally McCoist, on pundit duty on BT, says: “It’s a great result for Rangers, I’m so pleased. Can they do better with the ball? Of course they can.”
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Coverage of Everton v Newcastle in the Premier League, meanwhile, is available here:
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The action keeps coming. Our West Ham v Sevilla live blog is right here:
The quarter-final draw takes place tomorrow, and Rangers are in the hat for the first time since 2008.
Full time! Red Star 2-1 Rangers (2-4 agg.)
Rangers progress into the quarter-finals of the Europa League! There were times tonight when they were under huge pressure, but mostly they held firm, and that 3-0 win in the first leg proves to be more than enough of a cushion with Ryan Kent’s goal thrown in. Goldson is involved with a bit of afters with some Red Star players. Stankovic is looking animated about something. It seems as if Goldson may have celebrated in the direction of the home fans but it wasn’t caught on camera.
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90 min + 4: Pavkov is booked.
Goal! Red Star 2-1 Rangers (Ben Nabouhane, 2-4 agg.)
He slots it confidently. But there are only a couple of minutes to play ...
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Penalty to Red Star!
A chance for the hosts to give themselves a tiny glimmer of hope after a foul by Kamara on Falco.
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90 min: The clock moves into stoppage time. We’ll have six minutes added on, which feels like a lot.
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87 min: Red Star just need to score a goal or so every minute now. There’s a break in play for some treatment to (I think) McGregor. The Rangers fans are in fine voice. Their team have been tested tonight, and they came through.
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84 min: Kent slides an angled ball to the right for Roofe, who has been full of running since coming on. Roofe shoots low aiming for the near post. Borjan beats it out.
From the resulting corner, a sumptuous bit of skill from Goldson takes him away from a couple of markers but then he can’t find Roofe – who may have been offside – with his cross.
82 min: Roofe produces a nice bit of skill on the right, but he can’t pick out a teammate with his cross.
81 min: Barisic and Roofe come on, Lundstram and Morelos go off for Rangers. Less than 10 minutes to play, and the Red Star coach Stankovic is looking a little resigned on the touchline.
78 min: Rangers move closer, second by second and minute by minute, towards their first last-eight appearance in Europe since 2008.
75 min: Falco, who has just come on along with Motika for Red Star, fires a dangerous cross in from the right. McGregor claims.
72 min: Roared on by the home fans, the desperation has returned to the Red Star attacking game. If they snatched another goal now, we’d still be in for a nervous finale for Rangers. But with a three-goal cushion it’s going to take something special to stop them now.
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70 min: Katai bears down on goal again. He cuts back and forward but can’t get a shot off. Dragovic is then booked for a foul on Morelos near halfway. He is so angry it looks like the referee considers giving him an instant second yellow for dissent. But he survives.
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69 min: Jack and Aribo off for Rangers, Sands and Arfield come on. Piccini and Omoijuanfo have already gone off for Red Star, with Gajic and Ben Nabouhane on.
66 min: Kanga hits a shot from the edge of the box, McGregor parries to, Ben Nabouhane, who fortunately for Rangers sends his follow-up effort into the hands of McGregor.
65 min: Katai clips a cheeky ball behind to Ivanic. It looks like he controls it with his hand, but the referee doesn’t give it. Ivanic angles a shot for the far post but it’s just wide.
63 min: The shape of the game has changed markedly. The frantic waves of attacking from Red Star have dried up. Rangers are sitting a little deeper and inviting the hosts on to them. The fans are still making a massive amount of noise ... but it looks like the writing is on the wall and the belief has seeped out of the home players.
60 min: Kent races down the left for Rangers and hangs a cross up into the middle. Borjan comes off his line to claim.
55 min: An excellent counterattacking goal. Kamara touches the ball off to Kent in midfield and with Red Star men committed forward, he has time and space to advance into the penalty area with just one man, Dragovic, in position to cover. Morelos is up there too, but Kent goes alone, and gets a slice of luck when his side-footed shot takes a big deflection and balloons into the far corner of the net. Rangers are going into the last eight, unless Red Star can mount a spectacular recovery!
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Goal! 55 min: Red Star 1-1 Rangers (Kent, 1-4 agg.)
They’ve done it!
54 min: More pressure from Red Star. Omoijuanfo, the Norwegian, volleys a shot from the edge of the box. It takes a slight deflection but McGregor is right behind it. If Red Star get another goal, the roof is going to come off. Or at least it would, if there was a roof.
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52 min: Fine work by Aribo for Rangers, who are on the front foot for the first time in the half. He sprints on to his own header forward on their right, gets to the byline and then half-volleys a cross looking for Kent in the middle. Red Star clear their lines.
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48 min: Omoijuanfo now bears down on the Rangers goal. Bassey is there to disrupt his run. Omoijuanfo tries to lay the ball off for a teammate, who would have a one-on-one, but it’s overhit. Rangers survive again but they need to get a handle on this.
47 min: Red Star win an early second-half corner. It’s a low one, skidding across the six-yard box, and again there is defensive uncertainty from Rangers who fail to react to the danger. They get away with it – no one is well positioned enough for Red Star to tap the ball home. Ivanic then hits a crisp shot from an angle which McGregor saves.
Second-half kick off!
We’re under way for the second half. The next goal, as they say, is a big one.
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Half-time! Red Star 1-0 Rangers (1-3 agg.)
Advantage Rangers, but hope for Red Star. All to play for in the second half.
A few bits of half-time reading here:
44 min: Bassey makes a tricky run towards the home goal, and gets close, but can’t get his shot off from within a crowd of bodies. Red Star immediately pour down to the other end, and after winning a 50-50 with Jack, Piccini cracks a brilliant swerving shot which McGregor does superbly well to tip over the crossbar.
42 min: Katai, who is looking constantly threatening, takes a corner from the Red Star left. The Rangers’ rearguard holds firm again and clears the danger.
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39 min: In the other Europa League ties currently being played, Galatasaray are drawing 1-1 with Barcelona (1-1 agg.), Leverkusen v Atalanta is 0-0 (2-3 agg.), and Braga are one up on the night, and 3-0 up on aggregate, in Monaco.
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37 min: Kanga hits a pass over the top of the Rangers defence intended for Katai. McGregor is alive to the danger, though, and advances off his line to claim.
35 min: A tremendous sweeping move by Red Star is driven by Piccini who makes a strong run on the right. Rangers eventually manage to clear for a corner. But they are under pressure again and having to work hard to stop themselves being overwhelmed.
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33 min: Dragovic is down injured for the hosts, and needs a bit of treatment before Borjan pumps a goal kick upfield. Pavkov fouls Lundstram in midfield and the referee neglects to play advantage, despite Kent having the ball at his feet.
30 min: Goldson does well to block off another Red Star attack. Then he attempts a pretty ambitious curled pass down the line but puts it straight out. Rangers have been on the back foot for most of this, but the good news is they look dangerous in attack, and highly likely to add to their aggregate tally at some stage this evening.
26 min: Rangers win a free-kick which is handily positioned near the Red Star penalty area. Tavernier tries to deliver but it’s a poor one that doesn’t get over the first defender. Moments later there’s another chance for Morelos but from a very tight angle and his effort is easily saved.
23 min: Morelos sprints into the penalty area and toe-pokes a low shot intended for the far post. It flashes just wide. Red Star knock it long, and Omoijuanfo wins a header for his strike partner Pavkov. Pavkov hits an instant shot which dribbles just wide. McGregor was well beaten. The referee subsequently warns McGregor for time-wasting before the resulting goal kick.
21 min: Stankovic, with a slightly crazed look in his eyes, is pictured with his hands plunged into his Wenger-style puffer jacket. Van Bronckhorst is looking far more Mourinho-esque in a smart navy blue overcoat.
19 min: Red Star are on the attack, but lose it, and Rangers suddenly have a three-on-two as they race towards goal. Morelos tries to play a low angled ball to Kent, but it’s a horribly mistimed attempted pass and is easily cut out. Red Star steam down to the other end and a header by Omoijuanfo is saved at the far post by McGregor.
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18 min: Rangers have managed to calm things down a little following a frantic spell after the goal when the Red Star runners were coming from all angles.
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16 min: Dejan Stanković, the former Lazio and Internazionale midfielder, is getting into a right froth on the touchline as he wills his side onwards.
12 min: All hands on deck for Rangers. Ivanic is nearly in again, hitting an angled shot from the left side of the penalty area which is flying into the bottom corner – until McGregor dives low to his left and beats it out. A very good save. Moments later Kanga is nearly in for the home team. The crowd is rocking and the Rangers defence is creaking to say the least, but they just need to exercise the same kind of control as they did in the first five minutes.
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11 min: That is a very disappointing goal to concede from Rangers’ point of view. A short corner is taken to Kanga, who bends a decent ball into the mixer. Ivanic has time to take a touch after it bounces, and hammers a low shot into the net from the edge of the six-yard box. Collectively, Rangers were pretty slow in responding to that danger.
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Goal! 10 min: Red Star 1-0 Rangers (Ivanic, 1-3 agg.)
Game on.
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8 min: Katai makes a mazy run down the Red Star left. He cuts back cleverly from the byline, leaving Lundstram stranded, but overhits his cross to the far post.
6 min: Tavernier makes a good driving run from midfield and lays the ball off to Kent. It looks like the move has broken down but the ball then breaks to Morelos, who decides to warm the keeper’s hands with a powerful shot. Ambitious, but a decent effort and a good early tester for Borjan in the Red Star goal, albeit straight at him. He gathers cleanly.
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4 min: Omoijuanfo makes a dart for the home team on the edge of the box and dives after seeing the ball bounce away from him. Nevertheless this is a very solid start from Rangers, they are using possession well and have spent more of the opening in the opposing half.
2 min: Rangers win an early corner. They work it short, and eventually manufacture a cross into the area from the right wing, intended for Morelos. But Red Star clear their lines.
First half kick-off!
After one false start and a retaken kick-off, we’re off.
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The noise from the crowd is considerable. There will be a moment of silence for a former president of Red Star who died recently ... and we’re ready to go.
The teams are out on the pitch. They are lining up in front of a ‘Peace’ sign which is laid out on the turf.
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“He’s a pain to live with every day.”
The Rangers captain James Tavernier with a bit of pre-match bantz on the forward Alfredo Morelos:
How do you captain Alfredo Morelos? 🤔
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 17, 2022
"He's a pain! He's a pain to live with every day!" 😆🤣
Rangers skipper James Tavernier lauds El Bufalo in a backwards sort of way ahead of their crunch Europa League clash in Belgrade.
🎙 @Sports_EmmaD#UEL pic.twitter.com/xLXNwM8vGN
The Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has a chat with BT Sport: “We have to play our own game, don’t take the atmosphere too much in you, in a hostile environment like this. I want a good result today, we are not coming here with a 3-0 win ‘in the bank’, we want to get a good win here tonight.
“We can be very dynamic as well, depending on what Red Star do. They play with two strikers, so they’re going to push us ... they’re very dangerous, they have speed up front ... we [need to] have a lot of attention in those moments. We want to be in the quarter-finals. If we have a good result here we go back to Glasgow with a quarter-final ticket.
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A chat about Chelsea and some Champions League action in the latest Football Weekly Extra podcast:
What do you reckon is going to happen tonight? A seven-goal aggregate thriller or comfy 5-0 aggregate win for Gers? You can email me or tweet me.
On which note:
“Football fans in Europe are often fascinated by the atmosphere at the Red Star stadium in Belgrade,” writes Bogdan Kotarlic. “But, I have attended some matches there and the pressure and the energy that the fans make there is electric but not stronger and more passionate than at Ibrox, Selhurst Park, Parkhead, St James’ Park, etc. It is more a myth than truth, believe me.”
I guess it’ll be pretty spicy tonight, especially after the concerning reports of clashes between fans around the city.
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Teams
One change for the hosts: Milan Pavkov comes into the forward line with Slavoljub Srnic dropping to the bench. Rangers are unchanged from the first leg.
Red Star Belgrade: Borjan, Piccini, Dragovic, Erakovic, Katai, Ivanic, Kanga, Sanogo, Rodic, Omoijuanfo, Pavkov. Substitutes: Popovic, Gajic, Pankov, Krsticic, Falco, Motika, Ben, Stankovic, Radulovic, Srnic, Gobeljic.
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Balogun, Bassey, Lundstram, Jack, Aribo, Kamara, Kent, Morelos. Substitutes: Diallo, Ramsey, Sands, Wright, Roofe, McCrorie, Sakala, Barisic, McLaughlin, Arfield, Lowry, King. Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
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The Rangers kit team have been busy in Belgrade, and the necessary clothing is neatly folded in the changing room and very much ready.
💙#UEL pic.twitter.com/gs0E67Qx18
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) March 17, 2022
Preamble
Can Red Star overturn a three-goal deficit from last week’s first leg and storm into the last eight of the Europa League? It looks highly unlikely, because Rangers seem to have forgotten how to lose: they were last defeated by Celtic on 2 February, and have been banging the goals in for fun over the past few weeks, with 24 in their previous 10 matches.
A first European quarter-final appearance for 14 years beckons after James Tavernier, Alfredo Morelos and Leon Balogun goals established a seemingly insurmountable advantage for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side. But an early goal for the Serbian team, and you never know, the neutals might just be in for an exciting evening. Team news and more coming up.
