Liam Kelly was Rangers’ Europa League hero as he saved a penalty to earn them a vital goalless draw with Athletic Club in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final.
Jack Butland was dropped after a number of costly errors in recent weeks with Kelly justifying his first start since their Scottish Cup exit.
It looked like Rangers’ Thursday luck might be running out when Robin Propper was sent off early on for denying Inaki Williams an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Rangers’ Robin Propper is shown a red card for a foul on Athletic Club’s Inaki Williams
But they stood firm, with Kelly pulling off two brilliant saves just before half-time as they looked to continue their European adventure during a dismal domestic run.
Alex Berenguer thought he had given the LaLiga side the lead just minutes after coming on, but his ‘goal’ was ruled out for offside with VAR instead awarding a penalty for Dujon Sterling’s handball.
The substitute stepped up and sent his shot straight down the middle with Scotland international Kelly saving with his legs as the noise inside Ibrox cracked up another 10 levels.
The sides meet again in Bilbao on April 17 as they compete for a place in this season’s semi-finals.
Another side of Rangers
Rangers held on for a goalless draw with Athletic Club
Following the demoralising weekend defeat by Hibernian at Ibrox, former Gers captain Barry Ferguson promised to make big changes, with two enforced as centre-back John Souttar and midfielder Mohamed Diomande were suspended.
Aside from dropping Butland, Ferguson also left out Jefte, Connor Barron and Hamza Igamane and brought in Propper, Leon Balogun, Ridvan Yilmaz, 18-year-old midfielder Bailey Rice – making only his second start – and attacker Ianis Hagi.
The strongly-fancied visitors had wingers Nico Williams and his brother Inaki Williams in their attack, but they too made a raft of changes with Spain midfielder Oihan Sancet returning from a thigh problem.
Rangers’ task, however, became increasingly difficult when they went down to 10 so early in the game.
Prospective Rangers investor Andrew Cavenagh (L) was watching at Ibrox
Propper brought down Inaki Williams with a rash tackle and Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs initially gave a free-kick and a yellow card for the Dutchman, then went to the pitchside monitor and upgraded to a red for denying the Athletic attacker a goalscoring opportunity.
As Ernesto Valverde’s side stretched the Gers’ defence Yilmaz blocked an effort from Inaki Williams before Ferguson picked up a caution for a touchline infringement, after Hagi had been chopped down by Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta, who was also booked.
Kelly made good saves from Maroan Sannadi, who had put a couple of earlier efforts wide, and Sancet, before Nico Williams flashed a shot from 14 yards high over the bar.
Cyriel Dessers also headed over just before the break but the Spanish side pressed hard at the start of the second half and Sannadi was booked for diving inside the Gers’ box, before he missed the target from six yards, a real let-off for the home side.
Rangers’ Bailey Rice was stretchered off the pitch
Just after the hour mark, Rice was carried from the field on a stretcher with his neck in a brace after a lengthy spell of treatment.
When Kelly blocked a close-range shot from Gorka Guruzeta, the ball fell kindly to fellow substitute Berenguer who drove in from four yards.
However, a long VAR check eventually saw referee Kovacs go to check his monitor, disallow the goal for offside and award a penalty for handball against defender Sterling.
Jack Butland rushed on to congratulate Liam Kelly (R) at full-time
There was mass confusion inside the stadium, then roars of delight from the Gers’ fans when Berenguer’s penalty struck the leg of Kelly and flew over the bar, with the Gers’ ‘keeper then clutching the corner out the air.
The final stages saw Rangers dig deep into their reserves to keep dominant Athletic at bay and, in added time, Sterling was helped off to leave the home side with nine players as all the substitutes had been used, but Rangers held out.
