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.
13. James Tavernier
The captain replaced Aarons and was given a good reception from the crowd - easy when you are 3-0 up, though. Nearly set up Gassama for a hat-trick. 4 | SNS Group
14. Connor Barron
On for Cameron. Busy enough on the ball but had one moment where his carelessness gave away a free-kick in a dangerous area. 4 | SNS Group
16. Findlay Curtis
On for Antman but too little time to do anything tangible. n/a | SNS Group