Rangers 3 Braga 1 : Impressive Aribo with two assists; Bassey stars; Balogun subbed in

Published: April 14, 2022

Rangers were given a scare but are through to the last four of the UEFA Europa League after a 3-2 aggregate win over Portuguese setup Sporting Braga on Thursday night at Ibrox Stadium.

Manager Giovanni Van Bronckhorst handed starts to Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo, while Leon Balogun hopped off the bench in second half stoppage time.

Bassey was preferred to Balogun at the heart of defence and was impressive before switching to the left-back role after his international teammate replaced Barisic.

After losing the first leg 1-0, Rangers had to score to stand a chance of progressing to the semifinals and did so after one minute as James Tavernier slid a shot home from a tight angle with Aribo providing the assist.

And just before halftime, fullback Tavernier got his second of the night when he converted a penalty awarded after Roofe was fouled by Vitor Tormena, who was sent off for the incident.

Rangers would pay the price for not the scoring the third goal as Braga halved the deficit with their first meaningful attack of the game.

With seven minutes left in the second half, David Carmo timed his run and expertly headed home a corner to send the game to extra time.

In the 101st minute, Roofe who had two goals disallowed earlier was not denied this time as he tucked the ball home from close range after a perfect cutback from Aribo.

Iuri Medeiros' challenge on Balogun saw him yellow carded in the 105th minute and was given another yellow for verbally abusing the referee, leading to his sending off.

The Scottish Premiership champions will face German outfit RB Leipzig in the semifinals.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : uefa.com

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