Aberdeen fans packed Pittodrie for the season opener
Debutant Anderson denies Steve Gerard opening league win
By Mark Szczuka
Sunday 5 August 2018
New Rangers coach Steve Gerrard was denied a victory in his first league match in charge as his Glasgow Rangers side conceded a 93rd minute equaliser away to Aberdeen. It was a very entertaining match and full of incident, living up to its billing as the fight for “best of the rest” in the Scottish League as Celtic are highly expected to dominate yet again as they look for their 8th league title in a row and their 3rd treble of domestic trophies in a row!
Rangers looked stronger in the opening few minutes but were dealt a blow when their Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos was shown a red card after a clash with Scott McKenna after just 11 minutes of the game. Rangers surprisingly responded positively to going down to 10 men and went ahead with a Tavernier penalty after 30 minutes.
Despite having the extra man, Aberdeen struggled to convert their stronger possession into many threatening chances during the rest of the match and were looking tired after their grueling 120-minute match away to English Premiership side Burnley 3 days ago in the Europa League 2nd round match.
Rangers Ryan Jack was stretchered to an ambulance
Rangers, meanwhile, were keen to take every opportunity to waste time during the closing 15 minutes as player after player seemed to fall over and stay on the ground after the slightest of contact. Innocent of this though was the unfortunate former Don, Ryan Jack who went down in the 80th minute and, unlike several of his team mates, was actually hurt. He was substituted and indeed was taken to hospital in an ambulance immediately after the match had finished.
Rangers time wasting came back to haunt them however. It was no surprise when it was announced there would be six minutes of injury time.
And just as Rangers looked set to hold on to an important debut win for Gerrard, up popped 19-year old substitute Bruce Anderson to fire a low shot into the bottom corner of the net in the 93rd minute to secure a point in his debut match for Aberdeen.
