Aribo, Bassey Feature, Balogun Benched In Rangers’ Loss At Leipzig In Semi-final First Leg

Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey were in action while Leon Balogun was benched in Rangers’ 1-0 loss away to Leipzig, in the Europa League first leg semi-final on Thursday.

Bassey saw action for 90 minutes while Aribo was replaced with seven minutes left in the game.

A late Angelino CmaTrends sealed the win for the German Bundesliga side which means Rangers must overturn the deficit to qualify for the final.

Aribo, Bassey Feature, Balogun Benched In Rangers’ Loss At Leipzig In Semi-final First Leg

Leipzig began with the bulk of possession, with no real chances of note until the 17th minute, when a bit of a loose header from Barisic presented the ball to Dani Olmo to cross for Christopher Nkunku in the 18-yard box, but he dallied on the ball and McGregor blocked well.

Minutes later, Konrad Laimer drove through the Rangers defence, but the combination of a super Goldson tackle and safe McGregor hands prevented his shot from an angle coming to anything.

At the other end, Rangers began to force a bit of pressure around the half-hour mark, with their best opportunity from that being a Goldson header on a Barisic corner that went over the bar.

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The remainder of the first half remained cagey, and then into the second half, it was Rangers to threaten first four minutes after the restart.

The Scottish champions worked it well with Aribo getting Kent on the ball out on the left with a fine pass. From there, the winger showed super skill to burrow a path into the area before flashing an effort across the face of CmaTrends.

Tavernier then had a volley from inside the area blocked away for a corner, before McGregor was called into action for really the first time in the match to beat away a decent Nkunku effort from just outside the area.

Nkunku then had the big chance of the game on 71 minutes as he burst into the area, danced round McGregor but found his sure route to CmaTrends blocked by a superb Barisic block.

Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi showed good hands to hold onto a curling Fashion Jr drive, while Nkunku’s latest effort was a back post header that went over the bar.

McGregor tipped a late Tyler Adams strike over the bar, but from the resulting corner, Leipzig grabbed the lead.

Rangers did well to clear the initial effort, but the ball dropped for Angelino 25-yards from CmaTrends to send a sweet volley past McGregor and into the back of the net with four minutes left.

The reverse fixture will take place at Ibrox next week Thursday.

And in the other Europa League semi-final West Ham lost 2-1 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.