By Valencia05
Possession is nine tenths of law. It’s also completely useless in this current Rangers team.
It was a match of missed chances – plenty on the Pittodrie pitch and also a massive one wasted to boost confidence before next week’s Old Firm cup clash as the Ibrox men bid to salvage something from a poor season.
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Seventy five percent of possession. Shots at goal 20. Shots on target 3. Shocking statistics but not exactly unexpected.
Rangers boss Michael Beale agreed his side was too wasteful as he said afterwards: “First half, we were extremely comfortable, we were playing well. We go in the dominant team, but quite wasteful.
“Second half starts and it’s a bit of a freak goal we give away. The crowd are up and Aberdeen are pressing down, there’s a lot of stoppages in the game, a hard one to referee.
“I think in the build up to the second goal it’s a foul but you’ve got to play to the whistle, you’ve got to defend the back post better than that.
“Even then we had two more massive opportunities to score again.
“We weren’t good enough in both boxes.”
The Ibrox manager named the same starting XI who had beaten St Mirren 5-2 the previous weekend, with Connor Goldson’s absence from the heart of the defence being of particular concern to the Rangers fans flocking to Pittodrie.
The midweek news that of this first XI, only two — Allan McGregor and Alfredo Morelos — won’t be at the club next season was met with mixed reactions from the Light Blues faithful.
Of more concern to the Aberdeen supporters was the fact that the Dons hadn’t beaten Rangers at home since September 2016.
With Celtic dropping two points at home to Motherwell 24 hours earlier, the Ibrox men had the chance to narrow the gap at that top of the table to single digits.
Rangers fashioned the first chance of the game in 12 minutes when James Tavernier floated over a cross to the far post and Fashion Sakala rose brilliantly to head the ball back to Morelos, who cushioned it and swivelled to fire in a shot which was headed off the line by Leighton Clarkston.
Sakala did well to create that opportunity — but he wasted a chance of his own soon after when clean through on goal he fired straight at keeper Kelle Roos.
The Zambian was even more wasteful in the 19th minute after twisting away from his marker on the edge of the box before ballooning a shot towards the North Sea.
As the first half rumbled on, Rangers were enjoying 82% of the possession but 100% profligacy.
And Nico Raskin was next in line to make the least of a good chance as snuck into the box and rattled the ball off the lunging Mattie Pollock.
No half of football would be complete without a cock-up from Rangers in defence, so in time added on Tavernier duly delivered as his sloppy pass set up Ryan Duncan, whose effort from 20 yards out whizzed past the right-hand post — much to the relief of the Ibrox skipper and his team-mates as they trudged off for a dressing room dressing down.
If Rangers didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck. The second period was only three minutes old when the fell behind in farcical fashion.
Dons defender Liam Scales beat Sakala to the ball on the halfway line, took a few strides then sent over an intended cross which floated over the head of McGregor and into the back of the net.
However, the Ibrox side couldn’t blame bad luck when Aberdeen went 2-0 up. It was a familiar flaw at fault on this occasion: dire defending.
Clarkson clipped over a cross from the left and Bojan Miovski outfoxed all the Light Blue shirts in the box and headed the ball home. It was a dagger blow; an example of the cutting-edge Rangers lack.
As if to illustrate the point further, Rangers then wasted two great chances in quick succession.
Firstly, Tavernier lashed the ball straight at Roos in goal from six yards out after finding himself in space. Then substitute Rabbi Matondo raced free on the left towards goal, but his right-foot shot pinged the ball off the outside of the far net when the back of the net looked the easier destination.
There was more huffing and puffing from Beale’s side — but it was powder puff and only served to leave fans in a huff and fearing the worst for Hampden next week.
Aberdeen: Roos, Pollock, MacDonald, Scales, McCrorie, Ramadani, Duncan, Clarkson, Hayes, Duk, Miovski. Substitutes: Gorter, MacKenzie, Barron, Markanday, Myslovic, Watkins, Coulson, Kennedy, Bavidge.
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Souttar, Davies, Barisic, Lundstram, Raskin, Tillman, Cantwell, Sakala, Morelos. Substitutes: McLaughlin, Yilmaz, Hagi, Matondo, Kamara, King, Arfield, Lovelace, Rice.