Dessers Stars as Rangers Secure Stunning 3-1 Victory in Istanbul
Just short of the hour mark in Istanbul, Cyriel Dessers transformed into a boxer in the ring, toying with his bewildered opponents. After scoring Rangers' first goal, brilliantly assisting their second, and nearly adding a third on two occasions, the striker had the Fenerbahce defense on the ropes.
The Turkish side's backline was crumbling – their defenses down and heads dropped as they argued amongst themselves, unable to contain the menace in their midst. Dessers was running amok in what turned out to be a night of nights for Rangers.
While every player in the blue shirt delivered a stellar performance, Dessers stood out as one of the star turns. His relationship with the Rangers faithful has been tumultuous – reminiscent of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's famous on-off relationship: tempestuous, never dull, oscillating between love and hate.
Thursday's performance marked Dessers' fourth European goal of the season alongside his fourth assist. His season tally now stands at 22 goals, matching his output from last season. Looking back at Rangers' history over the past 25-30 years, only Alfredo Morelos and Kris Boyd managed back-to-back 20-plus goal seasons in the top flight – a pantheon with few heroes.
Yet "hero" isn't a word many Rangers supporters would readily associate with Dessers. The striker previously spoke about feeling written off just months into his first season at the club, lamenting how his misses received more attention than his goals, making him feel like "the worst Rangers player ever" in his own words.
In Istanbul, however, he looked like one of the best Rangers strikers in decades – classy, dangerous, and resilient. He came inches away from securing an away European hat-trick. His contribution – one goal, one assist, and a lovely cushioned pass to Nico Raskin before his sumptuous delivery to Vaclav Cerny for the goal that made it 3-1 – was mighty from a player who has faced significant doubt from the stands.
Perhaps the perception of Dessers is changing now, moving rapidly in the right direction, though not quite there yet.
This Rangers team might be the strangest in the club's history. The tie against Fenerbahce isn't over, but securing a two-goal buffer to take back to Glasgow next week was something no one saw coming. Absolutely no one.
They were immense in Istanbul. Jose Mourinho even suggested he couldn't have complained had Rangers won by four instead of two. It was a glorious night for the 'Four Bears' – the interim coaching team of former Rangers men led by Barry Ferguson – and continued the surreal narrative surrounding this collection of players.
The same squad had suffered recent defeats to Motherwell, St Mirren, and Queen's Park in the Scottish Cup. They saw their manager sacked, faced an uproar from supporters, and watched their Glasgow rivals pull 16 points clear in the league, seemingly opening an unbridgeable chasm between the clubs.
This is a team that struggles hopelessly against smaller clubs setting up defensive blocks domestically – dropping points in 11 out of 29 league matches – yet delivers their very best against stronger European opponents. As Tom English writes, "Sigmund Freud could not get to the heart of this lot. He would end up on the couch himself with Carl Jung waving a fan and some smelling salts in his face."
From joyless defeats at home against teams with fractions of their budget to towering victories away against European powerhouses, this Rangers side claims the title of the oddest in club history, capable of the most jaw-dropping extremes.
In recent memory, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's 2021-22 team comes close in the Rangers "odditorium." They reached the Europa League final that season, losing only on penalties after defeating Borussia Dortmund (featuring stars like Mats Hummels and Jude Bellingham) and RB Leipzig (with talents including Josko Gvardiol and Dani Olmo).
But there are significant differences between that team and today's Rangers. Van Bronckhorst's squad fought hard domestically, losing the league by just four points and winning the Scottish Cup. They were never as far off the pace in Scotland as the current team and never displayed the same level of turbulence.
As English aptly borrows from Winston Churchill, who described Soviet geo-politics as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," the same could be applied to the dual personalities of this Rangers outfit.
Fenerbahce, like others before them, afforded Rangers time and space, reasonably assuming that a team unable to score against second-tier Scottish opposition would pose few problems. Big mistake. They failed to account for the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Rangers – struggling domestically yet thriving in Europe when given space to counter-attack.
Ferguson and his coaching staff deserve immense credit for shifting to a back three formation, which worked brilliantly, and for instilling belief in players who had reason to doubt themselves.
The result sets up what promises to be a pulse-quickening night at Ibrox next Thursday. Bonkers, but brilliantly so.
