Rangers 1-4 Sevilla; Heading to the Top

By: Anthony | October 1st, 2009

First of all, what a great picture. Second of all, we’re amazing.

Sorry for not having this post up earlier but the WordPress server was down yesterday as they were setting up a new layout for the “Dashboard” where you write and edit entries.

Anyways, to the news you all are waiting to hear…

If we weren’t considered a real threat coming into this competition we definitely have to be now. Sure, I like being the underdog because we get teams who don’t know that “little club” from the south of Spain until we smash them *cough* Rangers *cough*, but seriously, we’re good.

I’ve never seen a stronger Sevilla side in my lifetime and I’ve been watching this club since I came out of the womb. From the way we seem to put the ball in the back of the net effortlessly, to the great wall of Nervión which is our defense, we’re about as complete as any team out there.

We knew coming into this match that it would be anything but easy and despite being the probably favourites, Rangers are far from a pushover.

To add to what could have been a few difficulties in the match, our usual left winger Diego Perotti was out due to a slight knock he picked up against Mallorca and therefore Diego Capel started in his place. After last weekend’s thumping of Bilbao, I actually had great confidence that Capel would get the job done in place of Perotti as he was absolutely stellar. Another change from the weekend is that Sergio Sánchez was rested to make way for Konko and Dragutinović out for the recovered Julien Escudé at the heart of the defense. A surprise was that Lolo maintained his spot in central midfield when Romaric was in the squad having fully recovered. Negredo as expected did start on the bench with our legendary pair of Fabiano and Kanouté starting up top.

The first half wasn’t a direct indication of out best football. We had some glorious opportunities through Kanouté as did Rangers when they could have very easily been given a penalty.

It was in the second half where we really turned up the heat and showed Scotland and moreover Europe, exactly what we’re all about and that’s beautiful football.

Five minutes into the half we were rewarded a freekick which Lolo took quickly to Navas who then crossed in which Konko rose to head in the back of the net with an absolutely amazing header. It was just the other day that I was saying how excited I am with the prospect of Sánchez being such an amazing right back and taking over for Konko who was very inconsistent last year but I see that Abdoulay feels his position and playing time under threat so he’s starting to perform. It’s amazing to see how a bit of competition in the squad strengthens it completely and the depth we have now is absolutely mouth watering.

In the 64th minute, Fabiano and Kanouté linked up perfectly as usual and basically unlocked the whole Rangers team as OFabuloso eventually pulled the ball back for Adriano who smashed it in to put us up 2-0.

At this point we were completely in the drivers seat and added another one later when once again the Rangers’ defense was caught napping. Kanouté received the ball on the flank, had all the time in the world and sent in a perfect cross which Fabiano towered over the Rangers defender to head into the back of the net with emphasis.

3-0 and no looking back now.

Why look back when you can look forward right? Exactly what we did just 2 minutes later as this time LuFa and Fredi played a bit of role-reversal. Navas sent Fabiano in on a 2v1 with big Fredi supporting in the middle who eventually received the low ball and slotted it past the Rangers’ keeper to put us in full control at 4-0.

There’s nothing to talk about from here other than Nacho Novo scored a 88th minute consolation goal for Rangers’ which ruined our clean sheet. It was a bit of poor defending as we gave him too much space but the back line as solid all night so I can’t critique or I’d be way too harsh. It was also much too strong and well-placed for Palop to deal with so no blame attached there either.

If we had anything to prove I believe we proved it with our amazing performance in Glasgow and I may sound repetitive but we’re definitely a team to watch out for both domestically and in Europe. Having said that, the mierda A.K.A. Real Madrid visit the Sánchez Pizjuan this Sunday in a match which will definitely be our biggest test this season thus far. A win there and I’ll be in absolute ecstasy.

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