The result was good enough. But, for Philippe Clement, it was equally pleasing to see that Rangers’ hard work on the training pitch had paid off during the 4-0 Europa League thrashing of FCSB.
After the gloom that was Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock, this was some way to blow away the cobwebs.
Rangers flew out of the blocks. And, in a thrilling performance inspired by the sweeping, silky Vaclav Cerny, produced their biggest European win since Charlie Adam, Kris Boyd and Barry Ferguson found the net against Hapoel Tel Aviv back in 2007.
Tom Lawrence opened the scoring from a clever Cerny assist. The Czech winger, much maligned during a lot of his time at Ibrox, then hit the target twice himself; one curled home with his weaker right foot, and the second rolled in with his left after leaving an FCSB defender sprawling.
This was the sort of performance Rangers expected when the Wolfsburg loanee – Cerny was labelled a ‘special’ talent at Ajax by Erik ten Hag and blossomed into one of the Eredivisie’s most feared attackers at FC Twente – arrived in Glasgow.
But, for Clement, it was the role played by two rather unsung heroes who put a smile on the Belgian’s face.
The midfield duo of Nico Raskin and the outstanding Connor Barron pressed and harried FCSB into submission, completing 15 tackles between them and laying the foundations for Cerny and co to wreak havoc in the final third.
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Rangers boss lauds Nico Raskin and Connor Barron after FCSB win
“Of course, against [FCSB] it was an important thing [to dominate in the centre of the park],” Clement said during his post-match press conference, delighted by the way Raskin and Barron fulfilled their duties.
“It depends, also, from opponent to opponent how you put the pressing. The team did really well. We don’t have much time to train on things, so it’s really short in the training and showing images what you want.
“In that way, the team was really strong today. Nico and Bas were really good. Before Bas and Dio [Mohamed Diomande] have been also really good in that way, so that’s what we need.
“We have so many games every three days that we need a good squad in depth also to challenge in the four competitions.”
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While Barron has been an almost ever-present since arriving from Aberdeen, this was only Raskin’s third start of 2024/25.
Legendary Rangers striker Boyd expressed concerns over Raskin’s form a few weeks back. The Belgian, he said, was a ‘pale shadow’ of his former self. This was more like it, however.
A few shanked passes here and there, admittedly. But, overall, a display of dynamism and destruction from a player who, making comfortably the most tackles on the pitch, could yet become one of the first names on Clement’s team sheet in testing European encounters.
“You have a game plan and you want to find spaces,” adds Clement, who’s side racked up a fourth goal as subsitute Hamza Igamane opened his Gers account.
“We had one training [session before the match]. And, to be honest, quite some things went wrong yesterday. So we had an extra meeting today about that.
“The players did it brilliantly this evening on the pitch. The more experiences like that, the better they will recognise also the situations. So, that’s a work in progress, and I’m looking forward to the future with this squad. I think a lot of fans will do the same now also.
“It’s about creating habits, it’s about creating connections, it’s about creating consistency with the squad to play at this level every game. So we’re going to work hard on that.”
