Derek McInnes blown away by ‘unbelievable’ Ryan Kent moment in Rangers v Aberdeen
Derek McInnes was blown away by how good Ryan Kent’s assist to Ianis Hagi was as Rangers drew 1-1 with Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Tuesday night.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men returned from the winter break with a bang as they opened the scoring in the 20th minute through Hagi.
It was no more than a tap in by the well-positioned Hagi but it was Kent’s cross into the Romania international that really had McInnes talking at half-time.
“What Kent does is just put an unbelievable cross in,” said McInnes on Sky Sports Main Event at half-time on Tuesday night [08:37pm].
“You think he would face him up there and try to drive into the box.
“Aberdeen have plenty of bodies back so actually, that’s a really good position defensively. But between [Ross] McCrorie and Joe Lewis here, they don’t deal with Hagi going between them and he scores from three yards out.
“The quality of this cross from Ryan Kent shows you just how important he is to Rangers because of the number of bodies Aberdeen have back.
“It’s one moment of brilliance there that has Rangers in front.”
Sublime
We cannot stop watching replays of that goal.
Alfredo Morelos and Scott Wright did brilliantly to get the ball up the pitch with Wright’s cross-field pass finding Kent out on the left-wing.
Kent’s cross was then inch-perfect for Hagi.
We cannot rave enough about Hagi’s anticipation and positioning though, as well as his composure to stick that in the back of the net.
It’s just that Kent’s cross was so good that it made what Hagi did so easy because it was served up on a silver platter for the goalscoring ace.
Kent’s been superb since returning from his injury and we cannot wait to see what he can produce over the course of the second half of the season.
The former Liverpool winger is rapidly showing us why we should value him as one of the best players at Ibrox and it also shows that he’s willing to step up and create chances while Joe Aribo is away at the Africa Cup of Nations.
However, that red card he picked up in the second half wasn’t warranted at all and it’s a shame we cannot appeal it.
Both yellow cards were extremely harsh and you could see exactly what Scott Brown was trying to do.
In other Rangers news, the winner has been named in the Gers’ race to sign this player after a £5million bid was lodged from Ibrox.