It would come as no surprise at all if they should muster up one final knockout blow next week when this tie will be settled
No, the truth of the matter is that every time Rangers pull out their passports for a Thursday night in Europe, something remarkable seems to follow almost inevitably. Last night in Lisbon they managed to cause further bewilderment to an already bruised Benfica side. The Portuguese really ought to have known what was likely to be done to them from the moment they were paired with Philippe Clement’s side in the last-16 draw.
The one that says Benfica had to rely on another atrocity from VAR and a Connor Goldson own goal to scramble a draw on their patch, having had to come from behind not once but twice. The one that says that these things cannot possibly be happening by accident any more. So it was left to Fabio Silva and Dujon Sterling to carry the fight on the flanks, with Cyriel Dessers leading the line through the middle of that three-man attack. And, in the fraught opening exchanges, the big Belgian may have had cause to wonder if he had got his formation right. Rangers weren’t helping themselves, it has to be said.
Butland didn’t merely help steady some nerves with that flying stop, he gave his side a foundation upon which to stun Benfica at the other end in the blink of an eye. But Clement’s side were dealing with these sporadic close shaves, even if the manager may have been looking for his players to have some controlled possession of their own to relieve a little of the pressure. And, eventually, they were undone by some freakish misfortune and a VAR intervention when John Souttar headed a corner on to his own hand and allowed the officials to roll out the remote control.
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