Dundee’s venture in the Premier Sports Cup came to an end at Rangers homecoming to Ibrox with a 3-0 defeat. Cyriel Dessers scored either side of half time and a James Tavernier penalty proving to be enough to send the Dee out at the Quarter Final stage for the fifth time in a row since 1986.
Tony Docherty made four changes for this tie against Rangers at Ibrox with Trever Carson, Jordan McGhee, Oluwaseun Adewumi and Samuel Braybrooke replacing John McCracken, Ethan Ingram, Josh Mulligan and Seb Palmer-Houlden.
Nedim Bajrami, Vaclav Cemy and Dujon Sterling made way for Oscar Cortes, Mohamed Diomande and Kieran Dowell for Rangers following their 1-0 victory at Tannadice last Sunday.
The opening first minutes consisted mainly of Rangers passing the ball around looking for an opening that they eventually did but Bajrami’s shot went sailing well over Trevor Carson goal.
Rangers continued to enjoy the majority of the possession, making dangerous runs down both sides of Dundee’s defence with Jefte Cerny proving to be a handful with their lively play.
The Glasgow club would eventually find the breakthrough in the 17th minute when Cyriel DESSERS initial shot was saved by Carson and made it’s way out to Cerny, his low hard driven shot made it’s way back to Dessers who slotted the ball home to make it 1-0 at Ibrox for a deserved lead for the home side.
Dundee had been struggling to get a foot into this game but eventually did see the team create a chance in the 25th minute when a Scott Tiffoney run from midfield saw his shot blocked by his own teammate Oluwaseun Adewumi and the loose ball fell to Simon Murray who seen his low, hard shot Saved by the feet of Jack Butland before the Linesman raised his flag for an offside.
Rangers nearly made it 2-0 not long after with Thomas Lawrence blazing well over the bar but the referee pulled it back for an offside on Dessers.
The Dark Blues nearly found a breakthrough when Mohamad Sylla played the ball through the Rangers defence for Adewumi to chase but just before he could get proper control of the goal, Butland in the Rangers goal came rushing out top deny the winger.
Rangers had another opportunity to make it 2-0 after a quick break away following a good few minutes of Dundee pressure.
Dessers yet again found space nut Antonio Portales done enough to usher him wide and the strikers shot was well saved by Carson who had it covered at his near post.
Dundee continued to make ways into this match with a Tiffoney cross meeting Simon Murray at the back post but by the time he attempted to control the ball down, two Rangers players made sure he would find no way through them by clearing the ball away.
Just as the 4th official put up his board to announce two additional minutes, a dangerous cross into the Dundee box was met by Dessers who acrobatic attempt looked destined for the top corner but Carson was on hand to tip it over the bar.
As the whistle went to signal the end of the first half, despite Rangers having most of the ball and some good chances, Dundee had come into the game more since going behind and started to find themselves putting pressure on the Rangers defence. Tiffoney and Adewumi both making some good runs down each side of the Rangers defence along with Sylla patrolling the midfield and helping the Dark Blues backline out.
Dundee made one change at half time with Seb Palmer-Houlden coming on for Adewumi who took a knock near the end of the first half.
Rangers also made a change with Diomande taking the place of Sterling.
Just a few minutes into the second half however, Rangers were awarded a penalty when Sylla was adjudged to have brought down Dessers with Tavernier making no mistake from the spot to make it 2-0. Sylla was also shown a yellow card for his challenge.
Palmer-Houlden’s introduction to the game came a few moment slater when his cross-come shot was touched over the bar. The resulting corner nearly saw Dundee pulling back a goal. Simon Murray’s header was saved by Butland and his second attempt at putting the ball into the back of the net was thwarted as the goal lay agonisingly open.
Just as the half hour mark approached, Carson pulled off a fine save from Bajrami who found himself with unmarked in the Dundee box.
Carson was at it again when he saved a shot from Cerny who shot from the edge of the box.
Right afterwards, Palmer-Houlden should have scored a goal for the Dee. A cross into the box landed perfectly to the big striker who was unmarked but he failed to put the ball on target, giving the home team a huge left off.
Dundee would be left to rue these missed opportunities when Dessers put this game to bed with his second of the game and Rangers third on the 66th minute.
Dundee immediately made a change with Braybrooke making way for Josh Mulligan while Rangers took off Cerny and Dessers, making way for McCausland and Igamane.
Rangers then made another change on the 72nd minute with Oscar Cortes replacing Bajrami.
Dundee would then create another chance to grab a goal, this time it falling to Tiffoney. A loose ball was picked up by the winger and after taking a few touches, his attempt was saved by Butland.
Jordan McGhee went down in the boxin the 77th minute following another Rangers attack and this sprung Tony Docherty into three changes with Tiffoney, Murray and McGhee being replaced by Curtis Main, Julien Vetro and Ethan Ingram and moments later, Tavernier’s game ended with Kasanwirjo his replacement.
Again, the home side kept pushing as they looked to add to their tally but Carson made a few good saves to keep the scoreline as it was.
The game then petered out in the remain ten minutes plus injury time until the final whistle was sounded signalling the end of Dundee’s cup run in this season’s League Cup.
Despite the scoreline, Dundee showed some good attacking spells in this match and had their chances to bring the team back into this tie denied with some poor finishing and good goalkeeping. The team weathered the storm throughout against an offensive home side and didn’t really get going until they went a goal down.
It’s always disappointing to exit any cup competition and Rangers deserved their win but the team proved they can be a handful going forward and we will be disappointed not to have put away some of our chances when we had to put our oppositions under pressure.
The bottom line is, Rangers controlled this game throughout and deservedly go into the hat for the next round.
Rangers
Butland, Pröpper, Souttar, Jefte, Tavernier (Kasanwirjo 81), Lawrence, Sterling (Diomande 46), Barron, Dessers (Igmane 68), Bajrami (Cortés 73), Cerný (McCausland 68)
Unused sub: Kelly, Raskin, Dowell, Balogun
Goal: Dessers (18, 60), Tavernier (pen. 50)
Dundee
Carson, Portales, Koumetio, Larkeche, McGhee (Ingram 77), Sylla, Cameron, Braybrooke (Mulligan 69), Murray (Main 77), Tiffoney (Vetro 77), Adewumi (Palmer-Houlden 46)
Unused subs: McCracken, Robertson, Reilly, Astley
Bookings: Sylla (49)
Referee: Chris Graham. Assistants: David McGeachie, Paul McAvinue. Fourth official: Alan Muir.
Attendance – 33665
