Rangers 2-1 Servette: Michael Beale’s men start flying in Champions League qualifier thanks to goals from James Tavernier and Cyriel Dessers

After 15 minutes against their Swiss opponents, Rangers were on a roll. Two goals for good, Todd Cantwell was back in the groove and the unfortunate events of Kilmarnock last weekend were starting to look like a false start. Fans already looked at the price of flights to Eindhoven.

Against this stubborn side of Servette, the opponents should know better by now. Second best against Genk in Belgium last week Rene Weiler’s side played with 10 men for 115 minutes and lost their backup keeper. Resilient to the last, they dragged the match to a penalty shoot-out and won.

Spot kicks were also the focus of events at Ibrox. As James Tavernier stroked his home after four minutes, Cyriel Desser’s first Rangers goal threatened to rip the roof off its hinges.

Living on the edge, a very 2023 penalty gave Servette a lifeline before half time. Goalscorer Dessers’ outstretched arm was one of those VAR handball decisions, allowing Chris Bedia to reduce the score.

By the end of a night that started so well, Ibrox felt like a seething mass of frustration. A 2-1 lead to take to Geneva can hardly be considered a bad result. However, with Servette midfielder David Douline with half an hour to play and missing the second leg sent off, things could have been better.

Towards the end of a struggling second half, Michael Beale’s side had been reduced to trying to get the ball through the eye of a needle. It is often said that this is a team that lacks breadth. When Servette parked ten men behind the ball in the final phase, fans almost yearned for Ryan Kent’s return.

Against a team missing eight of their key players, Rangers threatened to complete the tie before half time. Utterly confused on the defensive, it took Servette time to reveal their hidden depths.

The unluckiness of the penalty that gave Rangers a four-minute lead had to be seen to be believed.

In retrospect, David Douline will wish he had hit a relatively harmless ball high into the Sandy Jardine stand, taking no chances. Instead, the midfielder took a disastrous first touch that allowed Cantwell to pinch the ball off his toe. Panicking, the Frenchman threw himself into a frenzied challenge and hit Cantwell from behind with a stick.

As so often on these evenings, captain Tavernier stepped forward and swept the ball down the middle as substitute Joel Mall dove to the right. Rangers had a precious early lead.

The home side doubled their lead after 15 minutes as John Souttar earned credit for stepping out of defense with a point reminiscent of Alan Hansen in his prime. The Scotland defender sauntered into space feeding the overlapping Borna Barisic on the left. The Croatian international, a much-criticized figure of recent times, can still knock a ball off.

Assisted by more woeful Servette defending Danilo – who was making his first competitive start since March – missed the first attempt to hand in the ball. The ball made its way to the back post where Dessers was unmarked to score his first competitive Rangers goal with his thigh.

Servette refused to panic. They had been here before. In Belgium, the Swiss league runners-up last week defied a red card in the fifth minute for striker Crivelli to fight back from behind twice. They weren’t ready yet.

New signing Cyriel Dessers (pictured) scored his first goal for Rangers on the night to get the Scottish side’s second

Still, it needed a gift of 12 yards to get back into the game before half time. They had been second best in every field. In retrospect, Sam Lammers will regret the opportunity he missed to almost complete the game before the break.

When Nicholas Raskin played a superb one-two to pick out the unmarked Dutchman at the back post, Ibrox waited for the ball to settle into the back of the net. Somehow Atalanta’s new £3 million purchase fell over the ball and shot it wide. How precious that miss felt when VAR stepped in to award Servette a penalty.

Timothe Cognat swung a flesh and booze free kick into a crowded area and when Swiss players appealed to the referee, no one knew why. The all-seeing eye of Germany’s VAR officials identified the problem, replays showed the ball had hit goal scorer Dessers’ outstretched arm in the area

Play stopped when the Lithuanian referee ran to the monitor; everyone knew what came next. With four goals in five games, there was never any doubt as to who would take it. Ivory Coast striker Chris Bedia hit the ball so hard it almost broke the net. On a gloomy night in Glasgow, Servette had finally claimed a ray of light.

The second half started as the first ended; with Lammers looking up at the lead sky after another missed opportunity. No blame could be placed on the No. 14 as Servette keeper Mall leapt to the right to push a netbound shot from a low Tavernier cross around the round. It was just a brilliant save.

The tension around Ibrox was palpable. Just as they looked capable of giving Rangers a real problem, Servette shot themselves in the foot with their second red card in Europe in a week.

In the running battle with Todd Cantwell, the unfortunate Douline came in second place. An early foul had cost his team a penalty and a wild kick to the Rangers midfielder cost them a man. Still, after 115 minutes with ten men in Belgium, half an hour would probably never faze the visitors.

It has to be said that if Mall is their backup keeper, Jeremy Frick should be first choice. After his stunning save from Lammers, Mall produced another instinctive save from Dessers as the striker met a Tavernier corner on the volley.

New signing Jose Cifuentes and Kieran Dowell got hands on in the last 15 minutes to try and make the difference. Nothing could. This was another night to frown on a Rangers supporter who was mildly concerned about the upcoming season. To stand a chance of a possible Champions League play-off against PSV – with a 4-1 lead over Sturm Graz from the first leg – Beale’s team will need a huge dose of Dutch courage in the second leg.