Rangers vs Motherwell; Scottish Premiership
Rangers vs Motherwell. Scottish Premiership.
Ibrox StadiumAttendance50,828.
Rangers 1-0 Motherwell: Thelo Aasgaard's goal sees Gers edge Steelmen to move up to third in Scottish Premiership
Report as Rangers beat Motherwell 1-0 at Ibrox; Thelo Aasgaard scored for the hosts after Nico Raskin's goal was ruled out for offside; it is Motherwell's first defeat in 11 league games; Rangers move above the Fir Park side into third
Saturday 27 December 2025 18:43, UK
Rangers leapfrogged Motherwell into third place in the Scottish Premiership with Thelo Aasgaard scoring the only goal of a lively game at Ibrox.
Gers keeper Jack Butland and his counterpart Calum Ward both made crucial saves before and after the Norway international broke the deadlock in the 67th minute with a tap-in to end the Steelmen's 11-game unbeaten league run.
With league leaders Hearts losing 3-2 to Hibernian earlier in the day and second-placed Celtic winning 4-2 at Livingston, Rangers are nine points behind the Jambos with a game in hand, six behind their Old Firm rivals and two ahead of Motherwell, who had their chances to take something from Govan.
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Danny Röhl's side had lost only two domestic games this season - both to Hearts - but last week's 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle had dampened title hopes among the Light Blue legions, who witnessed a clunky start from their side
The visitors moved with purpose and pace and in the 12th minute Butland's foot blocked an angled drive from Lukas Fadinger who had been set up by Tom Sparrow before the Gers keeper saved again from Callum Hendry, who was played in by Ibrahim Said.
Ibrox growled in frustration.
Well keeper Ward had an easy time of it until the 20th minute when he made a double save, first from midfielder Connor Barron's drive from the edge of the box then Djeidi Gassama's effort with the rebound.
Then, as the game swung Rangers' way for a spell, Aasgaard showed nimble feet inside the Motherwell box before firing wide.
Just before the break Butland had to move smartly again to deny Elijah Just after Hendry's clever back-heel had set him free inside the Gers penalty area and then, at the other end, Ward beat away a close-range shot from Gassama before saving a header from Gers defender Emmanuel Fernandez.
It looked like Röhl's half-time pep-talk had paid dividends when Ibrox midfielder Nico Raskin had the ball in the Motherwell goal from a Gassama cut-back just two minutes into the second half but the goal was disallowed for offside Rangers striker Youssef Chermiti obstructing Ward.
Mikey Moore replaced Mohamed Diomande in the 55th minute, moving left with Gassama moving over to the right.
On the hour mark, Ward parried a back-heel from Chermiti but Moore could not force the ball into the net.
Ward saved a header from Chermiti moments later and, at the other end, Butland flew to his right to brilliantly palm away a powerful drive from Hendry.
However, when Ward could only parry Gassama's curling shot from inside the Motherwell box, after he had fashioned a yard of space, Aasgaard was on hand to slide the ball in from a couple of yards for his second Rangers goal.
There were more groans when Chermiti failed to control a Gassama pass that had him through on goal against Ward, who added to his list of saves in the 84th minute when he tipped a Jayden Meghoma drive over the bar for a corner that was defended, with both sides attacking each other with abandon until the end, with several more chances created and missed.
Röhl set for 'long, long journey'
Rangers head coach Danny Röhl on Sky Sports News:
"I'm happy that we took these three points.
"I think, especially at the beginning of the first 15 minutes, we saw a good side from Motherwell, very dangerous, then we changed small details and it had a little bit of a big effect for us in our game.
"After those 20 minutes we were completely in the game, a lot of ball-winning situations, good moments. But then in the last 10 minutes, I think so many chances we missed to close the game.
"Then it's tough in this league, because you never know what happens.
"Long ball, second ball, a little bit careless in the box. This is what we have to improve, but I'm very happy from the last three games, we took six points against good opponents. Big respect to Motherwell today about his performance as well.
"It's about the next game, the next few points, it's a long, long, long journey now.
"It's not a sprint this league, it's a marathon, and with this we have to go and we have to make step-by-step, kilometre for kilometre if you want, and if we do this then we are on a good way, but it's a long way."
Askou believes Well denied 'dead-certain penalty'
Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou speaking to Sky Sports News:
"It was a brilliant game of football, in general.
"Two teams who tried to play an open game on their terms. I think we started extremely well, the first 15-20 minutes dominated it totally.
"Created two big chances in the first half, where we are obviously disappointed now that we didn't take one of them.
"We knew that playing an open game against Rangers, we will get chances against you, but there were also some really big moments for us that we could have taken, and flipped the game into our hands and our advantage.
"We weren't able to do that today, and then there's a big call at the end, where there's a dead-certain penalty that for whatever reason is not given to us, and that could have at least given us one point, and I think that would have been fully deserved.
"I don't know why, but it's probably hard to explain, maybe why there was no explanation."
