April 15, (THEWILL) – Rangers put up a stunning display to defeat nine-man Braga 3-1 and advance to the Europa League semi-finals on a 3-2 aggregate.
However, a late wobble that saw the Portuguese side force the tie into extra-time made things more difficult than they needed to be for Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his Scottish side.
It only took the Gers 70 seconds to score and tie the game on aggregate.
Nigerian international Joe Aribo flicked on a Borna Barisic corner and initially appeared to ask too much of James Tavernier, but the right-back was at full-stretch as he fired from a tight angle, sending the home crowd berserk.
Rangers thought they had a second just over three minutes later. Another Barisic cross fell right on Kemar Roofe’s head to nod into the net, but VAR ruled his shot out after the left-back was adjudged to have handled the ball in the build-up.
Soon after, the frenzied pace subsided, but Rangers continued to throw everything at the Braga goal, with Barisic’s crosses proving much too much for the visitors to handle early on.
Rangers dominated the rest of the first half and could easily have been three or four goals up. Roofe, who connected with another Aribo flick-on but could only swerve his effort onto the crossbar, brought them ever closer to doubling their advantage.
Rangers were granted a penalty with just a few minutes left in the first period as Vtor Tormena barged into Roofe, earning the Braga man a straight red card. Tavernier went up and blasted a shot straight down the centre to double Rangers’ lead going into halftime.
The second half of the game was not as tumultuous as the first. Braga opted to make a game out of it, despite not even coming close to threatening the overwhelming hosts.
Roofe had the ball in the net again with a lovely chip 20 minutes from time, but the offside flag was raised, and VAR confirmed that the striker had gone a fraction of a second too soon.
Aaron Ramsey also scored, but he did so by barreling at the goalkeeper and bundling him over the line, resulting instead in a free kick being awarded.
Then, Braga pulled one back with ten minutes to go, thanks to a David Carmo header that levelled the score on aggregate. After that goal, the visitors began to pose a threat, and Rangers were forced to fight hard to stay in the game and see it out in extra time.
Rangers were scrappy at the start of extra time, but Roofe ultimately dodged the VAR’s hurdle by tapping in from an Aribo cross in the 100th minute, giving them the lead they so thoroughly earned.
To make matters worse for Braga, substitute Iuri Medeiros was shown two yellow cards in one swoop – one for a bad foul and one for complaining about it – leaving the visitors with just nine men for the second period of extra time.
Rangers could, and should, have had more after the interval. Scott Arfield, who had only just come on, sliced one effort and hit the bar from two yards out just a few minutes later.
Fortunately for van Bronckhorst’s men, it didn’t matter as they held on to seal a date with RB Leipzig in the semi-final.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
