Steven Gerrard’s Scottish Premiership giants Rangers battered Midtjylland in Europa League qualifying with Alfredo Morelos in top form.
Rangers’ brilliant win in Midtjylland on Thursday night was made all the more sweeter by the sight of a dejected Erik Sviatchenko, slumping off the turf at the final whistle after being bullied into submission by an inspirational Alfredo Morelos.
Steven Gerrard’s side produced arguably their finest away performance in Europe since that famous 3-0 win away at Lyon in 2007 at the MCH Arena.
The firebrand Morelos showed what all the fuss is about with a barnstorming centre-forward performance, scoring once and setting up two more with Joe Aribo, Nikola Katic and Scott Arfield also finding the target in Denmark.
And former Celtic defender Sviatchenko, who said before the game that he was ‘extremely pleased’ to renew acquaintances with his old rivals, could hardly hide his disappointment.
“It’s so unfortunate that we conceded so many goals. It was some individual mistakes that we don’t usually make that were the cause,” the centre-back told Bold.
“We just have to go from there in the return game. We can’t speculate as much on the outcome or what to do, we just have to go there and smash through. It’s going to be a crazy fight.
“We can just go out and do everything we can. If we can, that’s another matter. Right now, I don’t have the recipe for how to score the three goals it takes to move forward (in the competition).”
A dismal defensive showing from Sviatchenko and co certainly leaves Midtjylland with a mountain to climb. They have to win by three clear goals in Ibrox to go through.
And considering that Gerrard has lost just two of 19 European games in charge of Rangers, it is fair to say the supporters can start booking time off work for their next cross-continent jaunt.
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