Rangers cruise through to Europa League play-off with comfortable win over FC Midtjylland
Rangers 3 FC Midtjylland 1 (7-3 on aggregate)
Scottish football’s sole accomplishment in Europe this week was achieved at Ibrox, where Rangers cruised into a Europa League against Legia Warsaw with a comfortable victory over Midtjylland.
The occasion featured two goals from Alfredo Morelos to take his tally for the season to nine and also accord him the distinction of becoming the 11th Rangers player to score 10 or more in European football.
Steven Gerrard had used the example of Celtic’s ambush by CFR Cluj in the Champions League qualifiers to warn his players against complacency in their Europa League equivalent, but the factor that favoured Rangers most in this return leg was the 4-2 lead they had posted from the opening installment in Denmark.
He also had the leeway to rest Jermain Defoe, scorer of a hat-trick in Sunday’s 6-1 rout of Hibernian, and starting with Morelos, who netted a double in his short time on the pitch after replacing the former England striker.
Rangers’ other two changes saw Joseph Aribo and Dylan Jones drop to the bench alongside Defoe, with Glen Kamara and Scott Arfield stepping up for a contest which the Midtjylland fans had already relinquished hope, to judge by the fact that only 50 had followed them to Glasgow.
That judgement could have been transformed inside the first two minutes when Mikael Anderson forced entry to the Rangers’ box with space to drill a low angled shot across Allan McGregor and just wide of the far post.
Any residual tension, though, was lanced after 20 minutes when Sheyi Ojo – operating on the left – surged clear of Alexander Scholz and struck a low cutback across the Danish penalty area. Rasmus Nicolaesen got to the ball at the back post but instead of turning it behind for a corner kick the defender allowed himself to be robbed by Morelos, who took a touch and delivered Rangers’ insurance with a close-range drive past Jesper Hansen.
Seven minutes before the break the process was reversed, again to Rangers' advantage. This time, the work in the boiler room was accomplished by Arfield, who muscled through two tackles to break across the halfway line and pick out Morelos, on the left of the box. The Colombian had Ojo to his right and slipped a prompt perfectly for his colleague to slip home Rangers' second on the night and sixth overall.
The Ojo-Morelos scoring pact was once more productive immediately after the break when the former engineered a simple opening for the striker to find the mark with ease. The match now resembled a training session, although McGregor was far from easy going when Ferreira tried his luck from distance to confound the goalkeeper, who treated his defenders to a torrent of scalding words.
He was even more incensed when Sory Kaba planted a bootful of studs into his chest, an offence for which the forward was lucky merely to be cautioned.
Teams
Rangers (4-3-3)
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Katic, Flanagan; Jack, Davies, Kamara; Arfield, Morelos, Ojo.
Subs (unused): Foderingham (g), Helander, Defoe, Aribo, Jones, Docherty, Barisic.
FC Midtjylland (3-5-2)
Hansen; Scholz, Sviatchenko, Nicolaisen; Cajuste, Anderson, Ogochukwu, Ferreira, Andersson; Wikheim, Kaba.
Subs (unused): Ottesen (g), Sparv, Okosun, Mabil, Manjrekar, Dyhr, Dovbyk.