Malmo 2 Rangers 1 : Bonke stars, Bassey benched, Super Eagles duo not in squad

Published: August 03, 2021

Scottish Premiership side Glasgow Rangers were beaten 2-1 by Malmo in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League at the Eleda Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Leon Balogun, who was not available for selection due to suspension, will be sitting at home pondering what went wrong defensively after the Light Blues conceded two quick-fire goals in the second half.

Another Nigeria international Joe Aribo was surprisingly omitted from Rangers' matchday 20, teammate Calvin Bassey watched proceedings from the bench for the entire duration of the game and Malmo's defensive midfielder Innocent Bonke put in an impressive 90-minute shift.

Untroubled in the opening 45 minutes, Rangers had the worst possible start to the second half as Soren Rieks curled the ball past goalkeeper Allan McGregor in the 47th minute.

And the Scottish champions found themselves two goals down two minutes later as Veljko Birmancevic swept the ball home assisted by Anders Christiansen.

Zambia international Fashion Sakala came close to halving the deficit after he was picked by Wright but his shot was deflected wide eleven minutes from time.

Rangers pulled a goal back with the last kick of the game, which makes things a little bit better at Ibrox for next week as they need only one goal to take the game to extra-time.

Steven Davies with a deflected effort netted the crucial goal in the 95th minute.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : rangers.co.uk

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