Rangers vs Kilmarnock. Scottish Premiership.
Ibrox StadiumAttendance49,600.
Match report as Rangers beat Kilmarnock 2-0 at Ibrox; second-half goals from Antonio Colak, his first for the club, and Alfredo Morelos on his return from injury, helped Gio van Bronckhorst's side maintain their 100 per cent start to the new Scottish Premiership season
Wednesday 10 August 2022 10:51, UK
Second half goals from Antonio Colak, his first for the club, and Alfredo Morelos on his return from injury helped Rangers ease to a comfortable 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
Having been frustrated by a stubborn first half Killie rearguard, the home side finally made a deserved breakthrough six minutes after the break when Colak played a neat one-two with Tom Lawrence on the edge of the box, before drilling a low shot into the left-hand corner of the net.
Rangers' afternoon got even better when the returning Morelos, out since March with injury, tapped home a second with just two minutes to go to maintain his side's 100 per cent start to the new season.
After Rangers lost 2-0 away to Union Saint-Gilloise in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier on Tuesday night, it was inevitable there would be changes for the first home league game of the season.
Turkey left-back Ridvan Yilmaz made his first start and Steven Davis, Tom Lawrence and Scott Wright came in with Morelos on the bench.
Killie's on-loan defender Lewis Mayo was unable to play against his parent club, but Jeriel Dorsett, the 20-year-old defender who signed on loan from Reading on Friday, made his debut, with Liam Donnelly and Fraser Murray also starting.
Killie soon found themselves under pressure and in the third minute 'keeper Sam Walker and defender Ash Taylor blocked a shot from Malik Tillman, who was the best player on show in the first half.
Taylor was then booked for a foul on Tillman at the edge of the box, but Gers skipper James Tavernier curled the free kick over the bar.
A deflected drive by Wright was palmed away by Walker and in the 26th minute, Lawrence hit the bar with a speculative lobbed shot from distance.
Walker saved a long-distance effort from Wright just before the break, but it was a far from convincing first-half performance by Rangers.
Killie midfielder Rory McKenzie flicked a cross from Murray over the bar soon after the restart, but then found themselves behind when Colak exchanged passes with Lawrence before drilling a low drive past the diving Walker.
The Ibrox crowd relaxed, but just a little.
There was another huge cheer in the 62nd minute when Van Bronckhorst brought on Morelos, along with Borna Barisic and Rabbi Matondo, for Yilmaz, Wright and Colak.
Rangers kept going with the fans willing Morelos to get on the scoresheet and he shot wide in the 69th minute from an angle before being thwarted in the box twice by tackles.
However, with two minutes remaining the Colombian was on hand to scoop the ball in the net from two yards after being set up by Rabbi Matondo at the second attempt, and he once again heard familiar roars of approval from the Rangers fans.
Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst:
"It was his first minutes for Rangers after five months," said Van Bronckhorst, who revealed the club are "working hard" to get attacker Ryan Kent, who missed out again with an ankle knock, fit for Tuesday.
"If you think about it, it is a really long time and almost half a year.
"It was good to have him in the squad. You can see what he brings, not only to the squad but also the way the fans treated him when he came on.
"That is also what you have when he plays and he is always capable of scoring goals.
"For him, I think these first minutes of the season and after five months was very important and I am sure he will only get stronger with each game that he is going to be involved.
"And I'm happy for my two strikers. Antonio's first goal and Morelos as well. So that's always good to have them on the scoresheet.
"I'm of course happy with the three points. That's what we need every week.
"The way that you get to the three points is different every week. In the first half we were struggling to get some real good opportunities.
"We started really well against a Kilmarnock team who were delaying the play and making it really difficult for us to create any chances.
"But we've played many games like this before. In the second half you hope it will open up. That happened today.
"We scored some good goals and got a clean sheet and now we're working hard for Tuesday."
Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes:
"Disappointed we lose the second goal in the end. But there has to be a huge dose of realism here," he said.
"Just a couple of months ago we are trying to get out of the Championship and Rangers are competing in a European final.
"We are frantically trying to put together a squad which helps us compete and bridge the gap. We have not spent any money.
"I don't think my 'keeper has had too much to do. I know [Tom] Lawrence has hit the bar and Rangers enjoyed a lot of possession as we knew they would do.
"But by and large we were hoping to get to half-time with 0-0 at least and I was pleased to do that.
"I thought the discipline was good. There's no doubt Rangers were the better team, but we are disappointed with the goal we lose to Colak and then Morelos comes on. They have a rich array of talent and the two of them are good enough to seal the deal."
Rangers are at home again in their next Scottish Premiership match as they host St Johnstone on Saturday August 6.
Kilmarnock host Celtic on Sunday August 7, live on Sky Sports.
