Oscar Cortes shone in his first Rangers start as the Light Blues made their way into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup with a 2-0 win over Ayr at Ibrox.
The 20-year-old Colombian winger, on loan from French side Lens with an option for the Rangers to buy, had a couple of efforts on goal before he set up Borna Barisic’s low drive, which deflected in off Somerset Park midfielder Roy Syla after only 10 minutes.
However, Cortes departed after an hour with the Govan side struggling to see off the Championship side, managed by former Celtic captain Scott Brown, before on-loan Wolves striker Fabio Silva added a second in the 76th minute.
It was far from Rangers’ best performance of the season, but Gers boss Philippe Clement, who has already won the Viaplay Cup while hauling his side back into the cinch Premiership title race, will look forward to the next round.
Clement took the opportunity against the lower league side to make seven changes to his side.
Mohamed Diomande, the Ivorian midfielder signed from Nordsaelland, and Cortes were both handed their first starts with Barisic, Scott Wright, Ryan Jack, Nicolas Raskin and Silva also coming into the Rangers starting XI.
The visitors were backed by a good travelling support, who watched Cortes clip the outside of the post with a curling 20-yard drive in the second minute and had another effort saved by United goalkeeper Robbie Mutch.
Cortes was at the heart of much of Rangers’ early work and when he cut the ball back for Barisic, the left-back’s drive from 14 yards took a nick off former Albania Under-21 international midfielder Syla and wrong-footed Mutch.
Rangers dominated but after Connor Goldson lost possession, fellow Gers defender John Souttar’s saving challenge on Anton Dowds denied the Ayr attacker a shot on goal in the consequent break.
The visitors began to edge forward with growing belief, but just before the half-hour mark, Silva should have done better with a Barisic cross than heading wide from eight yards.
The lively Cortes screwed a shot just wide of the far post and a Barisic volley from a swirling Wright cross came off United’s George Stanger and keeper Mutch had to react quickly to save.
The Honest Men’s Ben Dempsey missed the target early on with an effort which should have at least been on target.
Portuguese striker Silva, booked in the first half for a foul on Nick McAllister, was perhaps lucky to escape further punishment when he appeared to leave his foot in on a tackle on Stanger and eyes went on referee Willie Collum.
Clement had on Friday backed Collum, despite Rangers reportedly asking the Scottish Football Association not to appoint the official to any of their games going forward after his part as the VAR officials in a contentious non-penalty decision which went against the Light Blues in their Old Firm derby defeat at the end of the year.
Collum took no action against Silva and United boss Brown vented at fourth official Craig Napier, and he soon saw yellow himself to the cheers of the home fans.
Clement brought on Todd Cantwell, Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo for Diomande, Barisic and Cortes just after the hour mark.
However, Silva ended any hopes of a shock when he fired in from 12 yards after Cantwell’s chip rebounded off the post, with VAR confirming the ball had not come off the arm of Matondo before it hit woodwork.
Man City's clash with Chelsea will decide WSL title, suggests Taylor
Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor did not understate the importance of his side’s upcoming visit to Chelsea as he described the clash as “more than just a game”.
City currently sit top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) one point above closest rivals Chelsea on 19 points. The defending champions hold a game in hand, however, after their match against Manchester United was postponed.
Both enter the match undefeated, with Chelsea earning six wins from six while Manchester City have six wins and one draw from seven matches, only taking a point away at Arsenal.
Taylor’s managerial adversary, Sonia Bompastor, will be aiming to become the first-ever coach to win each of their first seven games in the WSL.
With City unbeaten in their last three WSL meetings with Chelsea (W2 D1), Taylor is aware of the impact a positive result at Stamford Bridge could have on his title aspirations.
"It is more than just another game, of course. We have proven so far that we can play good stuff and have got good results along the way," he said in his press conference.
"We have been difficult to play against. There is no denying, these games are really important. For us, it is a good game and the fact it is Stamford Bridge gives us something different. We are looking forward to the challenge.
"It is a game that everyone is excited about."
It will be the first time the two teams have met at Chelsea’s iconic stadium. The Blues have won all six of their previous matches at Stamford Bridge in the WSL by an aggregate score of 17-4.
It is the most any team has ever played in the competition at a home venue while maintaining a 100% win record.
While City won this fixture at Kingsmeadow last year, earning a 1-0 victory over Chelsea through a Bunny Shaw goal, their opponents ultimately went on to claim the title on goal difference on the final day.
Yet when asked whether outcomes in games against Chelsea will decide the title, he said: "Everything would suggest that [it will]. It's too hard to say. They have made a good start, similar to us.
"I think for us we want to stay consistent, I think that's really important. The league table at the moment looks a little lopsided because they have a game to play and of course we want to make sure that we can give the best versions of ourselves in order to get the best result.
"I think that trying to win the game for us is the objective and it never changes.
"And we have a real good opportunity to do that, particularly with some of the performances that we have seen already this season and that for us is going to be our main goal in this game, to go to win."
There was positive injury news ahead of the clash as Taylor confirmed top scorer Shaw would be fit to start, though fans will face a nervy wait for top assister Lauren Hemp’s late fitness test to determine whether the England winger will be involved.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
