Ridvan Yilmaz looked devastated after missing the only penalty of Rangers’ Premier Sports Cup final shootout defeat to Celtic.
The Light Blues left-back saw his effort from 12 yards saved by Kasper Schmeichel before watching on helplessly as Reo Hatate and then Daizen Maeda finished past Jack Butland, who took and scored Rangers‘ fifth penalty.
Gers had been denied a penalty during the match as they performed admirably to push Celtic all the way.
When Vaclav Cerny was pulled down by Liam Scales, a free-kick was awarded but the tug on the jersey appears to have happened inside the box.
But Philippe Clement can take positives from the performance – with one Rangers man singled out by Neil Lennon for an ‘excellent’ display.
Rangers News gave out two 8/10s in our player ratings after a performance that came so close to delivering a second trophy for Clement.
Cyriel Dessers questioned over Rangers penalty no-show
But ultimately it was that one heartbreaking moment for Yilmaz that has been Rangers’ undoing.
The Turkish defender showed courage to step forward and take one but it wasn’t the best of penalties.
Lennon has questioned why Yilmaz was taking one anyway and says he’d have preferred one of the subs to take as they would be fresher.
“It’s a great save. He’s got down quickly,” he said on Premier Sports.
“It’s not a great contact. I wasn’t overly confident on Yilmaz going up to take it.
“I’m looking at Dessers, I’m looking at Dowell, Connor Barron…They were fresh. They’d only been on for 10/15 minutes.
“You’re a number nine – get forward and take a penalty instead of leaving it to the young left-back.”
Michael Stewart was then asked whether Rangers fans would have been expecting Dessers to be one of the takers.
He replied: “Yeah. Neil makes a good point there about being fresh. I don’t know whether they’ve thought that he’s not been on long enough to be up to speed.
“But as a striker I’m thinking you would want that.
“But then there is that perception with Dessers. I don’t know whether half the Rangers support would have been nervous to see him stepping up.
“For the goalkeeper to be the fifth penalty taker is quite incredible.”
Dessers not necessarily a Rangers penalty taker
Stewart makes a good point about Dessers – there likely would have been a lot of anxiety had he stepped up.
And he is perhaps not the most obvious choice of penalty taker.
Spot kicks are about composure and striking the ball cleanly, neither of which are always Dessers’ strong points.
So you can see why he potentially wasn’t high up on the list
