Dynamo Kyiv 1-1 Rangers: Well that was a surprise

As the clock ticked over to the 93rd minute last night, I had started writing my match report in my head, honestly it might have been writing itself. "Rangers limp to insipid defeat in Lublin" or "Toothless Rangers fail to make their mark in Poland" were the two taglines I was considering.

Then Tav clipped the ball forward, and we had 2 men over on the break. Dessers holds it up brilliantly and lays it off to Lawrence on halfway, Lawrence plays it wide to Jefte, who finds Cerny out wide and from near the corner flag Cerny cuts back and plays an incisive cross to find Dessers arriving in the 6 yard box. Suddenly we were level and I had to find a new title for this post.

But all good stories start from the beginning. Our start wasn't terrible, compared to how we started on Saturday it was like watching 70s Brazil last night. We pressed high and put the Ukrainian side under pressure, there was a clear maxim to keep the ball in their half and work the ball quickly out to wide areas and infield to create. We saw an early Lawrence chance from the edge of the area sent straight down the throat of the keeper after some good direct play. Overall, the energy was more positive, especially given the negativity going into the game once the line-up was announced.

But on the flip side, we looked almost ludicrously vulnerable whenever the ball was turned over almost anywhere on the pitch. I think this was impressive in it's own way, I couldn't work out exactly why it was happening, but despite our positive start the Ukrainians fired a few warning shots and Butland was called into action 2 or 3 times by the 20th minute. And it felt like no surprise when we lost the ball again, in a poor piece of play from Ridvan compounded by poor awareness from Souttar, and went into half time 1-0 down.

Back to the line-up, the two big questions were around if Propper would start and who would come in for Cortes. Balogun started for Davies, gave his usual 7/10, we will miss him when he's gone, but I question how much we are relying on him already. Clement threw a curveball by starting McAusland on the right with Wright on the left. Wright was an absolute net negative, which surprised no one, aside from the manager who subbed him at half time.

I published my thoughts on Scott Wright yesterday so I don't want to go into it again. But I will say the relationship between the fans and Scott Wright is that of a loveless marriage approaching divorce slowly, we are going through the motions, no one has the energy to argue anymore, we are just waiting for it to be over.

He was subbed for Jefte which caused a ripple of interest in the fanbase. I was obviously very much in the Jefte Left Wing club already, so I was very pleased. I was even more pleased when he had a very positive impact, squaring up his man and beating them often, a great outlet with his running, found Dessers with a fantastic cross that produced a top save from the keeper.

Despite the good impact from Jefte, we looked a little lost at times, especially in the latter stages of the game. Clement made some strange subs again, Dowell for Diomande and Sterling for Barron. How Tom Lawrence stayed on the park when he'd been terrible out of possession, despite looking sharp and fit according to Alan Hutton on Co-comms, I'm not sure.

It felt like the strange system we were seeing really came to a head near the end of the game. At one point Tav was in midfield with Sterling out wide, Jefte was playing behind Ridvan and Dowell seemed to be wandering around wherever he wanted in midfield. Despite good impact from individuals it felt like we were a bit of a mess again.

However, despite all that, we got a good result in the first leg. 1-1 is not to be sniffed at, Kyiv had looked dangerous and likely to add to their tally, so to keep it to 1 goal conceded when he had looked all at sea a few times was a positive.

I'm not sure we should be reading too much into getting a result when the performance was such a mixed bag. We are in the mess we are in from prioritising short term results over long term performance and I remain unconvinced so far this season.

There are some lessons we can take away though: Jefte and Cerny should be our wide players from the start going forward, Lawrence really needs to be replaced given his lack of physical attributes and Propper needs to come in at the back (probably for Souttar, who was absolutely woeful last night).

Overall I asked for us not to lose, and we did that, so that is something to celebrate.