OGC Nice 1-4 Rangers: What the hell was that?

I think when the ref blew up in the first 10 minutes and gave a penalty for handball, we all thought it was going to be yet another in a long run of terrible games. But then, thanks to some good use of VAR and a lengthy pause in play, the referee changed his mind, and thank goodness he did.

I wrote in my match preview that I thought Nice looked vulnerable to second balls in the box. And it might be stretching the definition of "second ball" but I thought our first goal of the night demonstrated that. We'd started to really grow into the game and had been putting the opposition under pressure, it felt like Igamane and Cerny had started to get involved a lot more. So when Sterling crossed into the box, Igamane pounced on some slack defending (that will become a real theme of this write-up) and set up Cerny to fire home via 2 deflections, it felt that it had been coming.

A well deserved lead that came after a very competitive first 30 mins from us. I think that's what I find frustrating about the difference in European and domestic performances. We are ready to compete for everything in Europe and domestically we don't look bothered, that's not a tactical thing as much as it's motivational.

Then a few minutes later we had doubled our lead. A speculative ball over the top from Sterling was bizarrely left by the Nice captain, Diomande was alive to the chance and managed to touch the ball over the keeper on the half-volley. I love Diomande's face as he wheels away in celebration, joy, amusement and a bit of disbelief mixed in there. I think that was the point when the team realised that Nice were not at our level last night, and we could take advantage.

And to give us a helping hand, Nice handed us a 3 goal lead with a blind and short back pass which Igamane pounced on, took round the onrushing keeper superbly, steadied himself and then slotted into the bottom left corner past a hapless covering defender.

I think the funny thing was, we really had looked sloppy at the back at times in that first half, Propper dived in high up the pitch and was skinned by Moukoko, and we'd flapped a bit defending the chance that was initially called as handball. But then in comparison to Nice's backline we looked like we had Tony Adams at the back.

So we went into the second half 3 goals up away in Europe. Ally McCoist was quick to point out that our first half tally was more away goals than we'd managed in the league all season. I wasn't sure how we'd approach the second half, there's no way we expected to be in that position and that can create some real uncertainty. Especially when the home team have nothing to lose and will just send it.

It seemed like it was going to be a much tougher half when Nice came out the blocks firing and had their ace-in-the-hole Tanguy Ndombele come on for their left back (did anyone else think the left back looked like a French Ryan Kent?).

But that pressure quickly abated when Igamane had the ball in the left channel, effortlessly nutmegged the Nice skipper and then coolly rolled the ball into the far corner. It was an excellent finish and last night it was easy to see the potential we paid for when we bought Igamane. Seems a long time ago people were (rightly) raging that we signed someone who wasn't ready to kick a ball in Scotland yet.

He seemed to really enjoy himself out there and while he was no doubt disappointed he never got his hat trick, him being subbed for Dessers along with Sterling and Cerny going off tells us that they will likely start at the weekend. And I think it's definitely a positive sign to see them all starting.

Dessers managed to miss a sitter, but that isn't much of a surprise.

The other main thing was that we got to see Bajrami playing as the 10 for the majority of the second half when Diomande was subbed for Ridvan Yilmaz. I thought he looked okay overall last night but physically he seemed to struggle, that's unlike him and I found it frustrating to watch him shrugged off the ball on occasion when Diomande had seemed incredibly resilient in possession. I do think he was hampered with Dessers wandering around upfront and a left back who isn't fully fit playing on the left wing. But it's something we need to see properly before we can judge his future role.

As much as last night felt great I really do feel a bit flat this morning, there's just no way we can turn round the domestic form, even with the way Igamane grabbed his chance last night and the positive games from Diomande and Sterling. It once again feels like it's one team in Europe and one domestically.

I don't want to put too much of a downer on what was a very fun game to watch. I don't think I'll be the only one who has even more questions after watching us play like that after sitting through the Chernobyl of a performance on Saturday.

Oh, Nice scored a nice free kick late on, classic amazing consolation goal. The players can be pleased with their performances last night, but hopefully they got in that dressing room and had a serious discussion about taking that confidence into the league as we travel to Perth on Sunday.

Thanks all and have a good day.