Steven Davis might be in the winter of his career considering he’s 36 years of age but his contribution on Tuesday night in Malmo has possibly prevented it being a miserable summer for Rangers. There’s still a fair bit of work to do, but it takes Rangers into next Wednesday’s game with a much more positive outlook than would have been the case if they were two goals down.

Malmo were the better side for most of a game in which both teams were playing a very attacking style. In the first half Rangers were playing some nice football but couldn’t quite get things going in the final third that would create scoring opportunities. Their best chance fell to Ryan Kent, who wasted it when he decided that he was going to finish with his right foot. This allowed the Malmo defenders to close him down when they might have struggled had he if decided to shoot earlier.

Kent ended the match as a hero too however, as he laid on the chance for Davis to score the crucial goal with 12 seconds left of normal time. However, he’s a real mix of positives and negatives in every match he plays and I know that he’s very frustrating to a lot of Rangers fans who feel that he gives the ball away too much. I agree that he does but I would say that this should be accepted because players like him with immense individual talent and dribbling skills are always going to make mistakes. He’s trying so often to create a scoring chance and taking the players he goes past out of the game, that this makes him very unique in the modern game as very few players can do that. In most cases now, players are coached to be passers of the ball and that’s why it’s special to have somebody who can run and dribble with the ball. If he was actually successful with every dribble, he would probably be at Barcelona or Real Madrid rather than Rangers.

In terms of the defending in the early part of the second half, I’m pretty sure Steven Gerrard will be fairly upset at how casual this was leading to Malmo getting their two-goal lead. Both goals were preventable and will only be forgotten should Rangers win through next Wednesday. Goldson, who has been a regular in the Rangers defence, didn’t do well at either goal and let himself down with his presence as the controller of the shape of the back four. They were all over the place and for the first goal even new signing John Lundstram could have marked the scorer Soren Rieks much better at the back post. The second goal was an error from Goldson with his clearance but James Tavernier was also culpable as he had initially given the ball away and then didn’t sprint back into position afterwards which would have prevented Veljko Birmancevic scoring.

I think these facts will be acknowledged by Steven Gerrard and he’ll make it clear that the consistency Rangers have had in defence over the last 12 months has been a crucial factor in achieving the desired results at home and in Europe. It’s difficult to give too much criticism to defenders who have proved to be consistent but Rangers now have a bit more cover for these positions with Patterson, Bassey, Balogun, Katic and Simpson all waiting for their chance. This situation should normally bring the best out of players who want to keep their place in the team.

For the second leg, Rangers now need to up their game. They deserve credit from the first leg in that they didn’t settle on the 2-0 scoreline and for the final quarter of the match, went all out to get a goal that could prove to be crucial, and they achieved it with hard work. This proved that they can compete with the Swedes and with better defending and more creativity from midfield then this is still very much an open contest. I think that Kent and Scott Wright could be the two crucial players to help turn this in Rangers favour. They are both direct and positive and given that the Swedes are likely to play a deep and defensive game with counter attacks being their tactic I believe that both of these players will be pivotal in getting Rangers into the next round.

AND ANOTHER THING

In terms of references I’ve made recently regarding FIFA altering the timing of matches to facilitate the time only being measured when the ball is in play, my understanding is that they are actually considering another amendment. They are looking to alter the offside law to make it better for attacking players. Currently, especially with VAR, the player is adjudged to be offside if any part of his body is beyond the last defender. With the endorsement of Arsene Wenger, they are now only considering the players to be offside if their feet or legs are beyond the last defender.

This will be positive as we’ve seen some ridiculous decisions in the last year with offside being adjudged when it’s actually hands or even fingers that are beyond the last man. It’s going to be trialed first but then voted upon by the IFAB Board for introduction next season.