Football: Gerrard’s Rangers off to winning start in Scottish Premiership season
Rangers defeat Aberdeen 1-0 in season opener
Glasgow: Rangers got their quest to deny Celtic a record-breaking 10th consecutive Scottish Premiership title off to a winning start as Ryan Kent’s cool finish earned a 1-0 victory at Aberdeen for Steven Gerrard’s men.
In the first Scottish Premiership game for 147 days after the 2019/20 season was ended early due to the coronavirus pandemic, both sides struggled to adapt to their new surroundings with no fans at Pittodrie for a traditionally intense fixture on and off the field.
Rangers controlled the game throughout and one goal was enough for a vital three points with Gerrard under pressure to end Celtic’s dominance in his third season in charge.
Alfredo Morelos has been linked with a big money move to Lille over the past week, but Rangers insist the French side have not come close to matching their valuation of the Colombian, who played his part in the winner.
Morelos picked out the run of Kent, who timed his run perfectly and slotted past Joe Lewis into the far corner on 21 minutes.
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Despite the visitors’ dominance of possession, neither side had many chances to add to the scoring.
Aberdeen were without their two first-choice strikers in Sam Cosgrove and Curtis Main and it showed as the Dons failed to register a shot on target.
A wild lunge from Andrew Considine on Scott Arfield gave Aberdeen even more of a mountain to climb four minutes from time as the defender was shown a straight red card.
And only a brilliant block from Ash Taylor denied Joe Aribo adding a second for Rangers in stoppage time.