Rangers have one foot in the play-off round of the Champions League after a comprehensive 3-0 win over Viktoria Plzen at Ibrox.
Russell Martin’s men head to Czechia next week with a commanding advantage in this third qualifying round tie and are landslide favourites to face either Club Brugge or Salzburg later this month.
Stung by criticism from Martin after starting the Premiership campaign with a 1-1 draw at Motherwell on Saturday, Rangers put in a vastly improved performance in front of 45,000 fans. The manager dropped captain James Tavernier and popular midfielder Nicolas Raskin, but both decisions were vindicated.
New signing Oliver Antman was handed a debut and impressed as a right winger, but the star of the show once again was Djeidi Gassama on the other flank. He scored twice and is already the darling of the home support.
The young Frenchman opened the scoring on 15 minutes after good link-up from Cyriel Dessers and the Nigerian striker, on his first start of the season, converted a penalty right on half-time after a foul on Antman.
Rangers bagged a third on 51 minutes when Gassama headed home an Antman cross and while the hosts could have scored more, they head into next Tuesday’s second leg with a commanding advantage against limited opposition.
We give each player a mark out of ten for their performance at Ibrox.
1. Jack Butland
Quiet night. A cultured fellow, he may as well have visited https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions and spent the first half reading all of The Scotsman's excellent Edinburgh festival reviews via our generous subscription package. First save was a trundler on 55 minutes and then had to put the iPad down when Plzen rallied to some extent towards the end. 6 | SNS Group
2. Max Aarons
Moved to his more natural position of right-back for this match, taking the place of dropped captain Tavernier. Had a couple of hairy defensive moments but looked far more comfortable on this flank. Sent a lovely pass through to Antman that led to the third goal. Hobbled off on 75 minutes for Tavernier after taking a kick. 7 | PA
3. Jefte
First competitive start under Martin. Having a natural left-back on the pitch gave Rangers much more balance. Steady enough performance and his only blot on the copybook was being booked on 41 minutes for a lunging foul after a poor touch. 6 | PA
4. Nasser Djiga
A very likeable performance from the Wolves loanee. More assured on the ball than Souttar and won almost all of his physical duels. Great block to deny a certain Vydra goal on 19 minutes when the scoreline was deadlocked. Looks like one of Rangers' better summer signings. 8 | SNS Group