RANGERS were held to a 1-1 draw against Motherwell at Fir Park in the Scottish Premiership this evening.
The Gers struck inside five minutes through Nico Raskin, latching onto a Mohamed Diomande through ball, but were pegged back with three minutes remaining when Stephen Welsh fired beyond Jack Butland from close-range.
Danny Röhl named seven changes to his side for the trip to Lanarkshire, with Youssef Chermiti returning to the starting lineup having missed the last two outings through injury.
It was a contest between the two sides with the meanest defensive records in the division, yet the opening exchanges was certainly an attacking affair.
Motherwell were first to threaten when Stephen O’Donnell advanced down the right and the Gers failed to clear their lines, allowing Callum Slattery to feed Emmanuel Longelo on his left-hand side where Butland was equal to the Englishman’s effort.
The Lanarkshire outfit hadn’t conceded a goal on the Fir Park turf since all the way back on October 18 – preceding Röhl’s arrival at Rangers – but they were picking the ball out of the back of their net inside just five minutes when the visitors shattered that streak.
Starting from their own goal-kick, the Gers played patiently through the thirds, freeing Diomande in space in midfield who drove forward and slid a delicious pass through the Motherwell rearguard to Raskin, darting across O’Donnell’s blind side, who composed himself inside the penalty area and slotted a cool finish beyond Calum Ward.
The away side appeared in the mood, buoyed by 13 goals in their previous two outings, as Tochi Chukwuani fired wide from 25 yards out after being picked out by Djeidi Gassama on the break.
However, Motherwell underlined their own attacking threat when O’Donnell wriggled free of Mikey Moore’s attentions just shy of the halfway line before dinking a pass over the top of Tawanda Maswanhise.
The league’s top goalscorer steadied himself and attempted to catch Jack Butland out at his near post but watched his effort crash back off the woodwork.
Prior to that the Gers goalkeeper was down low to Slattery’s free-kick before he was grateful for Raskin’s goalline intervention when O’Donnell met Elijah Just’s deep delivery and redirected a volley back across the face of the six-yard area.
Down the opposite end, Chermiti was presented with a gift when Stephen Welsh nodded into the path of the Portuguese forward on the edge of his own penalty area, but his subsequent effort was straight at Ward between the posts before O’Donnell got around to block the follow-up.
Rangers emerged for the second half with a renewed vigour as Moore showed nifty footwork in midfield before finding Chermiti whose low delivery across the face of goal in search of Gassama was cut out by Paul McGinn.
Despite the scoreline and need for Motherwell to commit bodies forward in search of a leveller, Butland was a relative bystander in the opening exchanges of the second period.
Indeed, it was Rangers who looked more likely to force the issue, with Ryan Naderi summoned from the substitutes bench on the hour-mark.
Butland was then comfortable at his near post to thwart Just after the midfielder combined with Ibrahim Said to unlock a pocket of space inside the Gers penalty area.
The visitors moved forward with intent when Naderi showed great strength to bring Tavernier into play advanced on the right, whose first-time pass was latched onto by Moore and his cross was inches away from connecting with Chermiti darting across the front post.
Motherwell were then reduced to ten men with a quarter of an hour remaining when Lukas Fadinger was guilty of serious foul play after a nasty challenge on Moore as the on-loan winger spun into space just inside the hosts’ half.
Despite the man advantage Butland was then equal to Eythor Bjorgolfsson’s header when the substitute met McGinn’s delivery from close-range, but there was little he could do with It
DANNY Röhl and Bojan Miovski spoke to the media today ahead of Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership fixture against Motherwell.
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