Rangers overcome wobbly axis of error as Euro specialists keep £40m dream alive - Keith Jackson's big match verdict

If there’s one thing we should have learned about watching Rangers in Europe over these last 12 months then it’s surely to expect them to do things the hard way.

But, even so, they took their fans to the brink of a nervous breakdown in this tie before storming to the kind of stunning home win which became such a trademark throughout last season’s epic Europa League run to Seville. Having capitulated so woefully in Belgium last week, their Champions League hopes were hanging by a thread until James Tavernier netted a late first-half penalty to rekindle an old flame inside Ibrox.

When Antonio Colak poached a second just shy of the hour the scene was set for another one of those rousing Euro nights. And Malik Tillman obliged by heading home a third goal and sparing a full house the agony of 30 more minutes of insufferable anxiety. All in all, then, it was the perfect response and result. Even if the nature of the performance had Giovanni van Bronckhorst scratching his head at times in the end all that mattered was that his players had dug themselves out of a £40million hole.

His team selection smacked of a manager still searching for his strongest XI. And perhaps even one struggling to see the woods for the trees. Saturday’s man of the match, Steve Davis, dropped back to the bench to make way for Scott Arfield. New boys Tom Lawrence, Tillman and Colak were all thrown in from the start with Ryan Kent returned from the treatment room in time to take his place on the left wing – while Alfredo Morelos had to settle for a seat on the bench.

And, perhaps most concerning of all, the wobbly axis of errors between James Sands and Borna Barisic – which was so exposed during the first leg – was reinstated on the left side of the