Rangers secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday and the Ibrox giants now await the draw to decide who they will be playing in the last eight.
Gio van Bronckhorst’s side lost 2-1 in Serbia in the second leg yesterday evening but won 4-2 on aggregate to ensure their passage through to the next round.
It was a disappointing display on the night as Allan McGregor was forced into making a string of impressive saves to keep Red Star Belgrade at bay, whilst Ryan Kent’s deflected goal was the only moment of note at the other end.
A number of Gers players struggled throughout the game, and one who flopped on the night was young left-back Calvin Bassey.
Was Bassey disappointing?
Yes
No
The former Leicester man was selected ahead of Borna Barisic to play on the left of the back four but was unable to justify his selection as he put in a worrying performance.
Bassey has averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.88 in the Europa League, winning 63% of his duels and completing 30 passes per game on average. This shows that he came into the game off the back of some fine form in Europe, which is why his display in the second leg was disappointing as he flopped against the Serbian outfit.
As you can see in the graphic below, the Nigeria international let himself down in a number of key statistics (via SofaScore) throughout the match.
Along with these worrying statistics, he also gave the ball away every 2.8 touches and failed to create a single chance from left-back, as per SofaScore.
This shows that Bassey was unreliable in possession and was unable to support Kent on the left flank. He rarely made his way forward to make an impact in the final third, with the one time he did find himself in the box ending in him failing with an attempt to dribble between two Red Star players.
Whilst the dud’s performance did not cost Rangers the tie, thanks to the 3-0 win in the first leg, it is not a showing that he will want to replicate this season. The Gers are now heading into the business end of the campaign and Van Bronckhorst cannot afford to have players putting in displays like this too often if he wants to collect silverware this year.
Bassey may have flopped in this game but he has plenty of chances left in the coming weeks to get back to his best and play a crucial role in what could be a famous European adventure…
AND in other news, Forget Kamara: Rangers lightweight who lost 16 duels almost cost GvB qualification…