Dujon Sterling hits out at 'desperate' Rangers referee as triple VAR check riles defender up

Rangers defender Dujon Sterling has criticised referee Ricardo De Burgos Bengoetxea for being 'desperate' to hand Nice a penalty in the opening stages of Rangers' 4-1 win in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

Rangers travelled to the Côte d'Azur in hopes of another European scalp away from home, and their prayers were answered by their attacking stars with Hamza Igamane's brace, alongside Mohamed Diomande's delightful lob and Vaclav Cerny's opener being enough to set the Gers onto a memorable away win.

But that may not have been the case early on. Youssoufa Moukoko fired a shot at John Souttar and screamed for handball, before Nice thought Connor Barron had brought down Badredine Bouanani from the follow-up and there were even murmurs of handball from Sterling via Gaetan Laborde's cross just seconds later. Bengoetxea signalled for a penalty, though a VAR check looked at all three incidents before deciding none were worthy of a spot-kick.

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And that led Sterling to blast the referee for being 'desperate' to hand Nice a penalty, with the former Chelsea defender posting on social media: "Good European performance from the boys, great atmosphere from fans. By the way, anyone know why the ref was desperate to give them a pen(alty)?"

Rangers won't care, with the Light Blues now sitting in eighth-place in the league phase table, which would be enough to take them through to the last 16 of the tournament, avoiding the play-off round in the process - and that could be enough for Philippe Clement to have a real go at some major European silverware.