Cyriel Dessers leaves Graham Spiers stunned in ‘Baffling’ new Rangers admission
Cyriel Dessers has split opinion among Rangers supporters throughout his time at Ibrox, and the 3-1 win over Fenerbahce in the Europa League was no different.
Dessers opened the scoring inside the first seven minutes of the first leg in Istanbul (6 March), continuing his excellent record under Barry Ferguson, before seeing two more disallowed after the break.
The Nigerian’s strike stunned Jose Mourinho’s Turkish giants – who visit Ibrox for the second leg next Thursday – and equalled his total of 22 goals from last season.
Dessers is a ‘baffling footballer’
Many were quick to weigh in on what they witnessed from Rangers during part one of the last 16 tie in Istanbul, with Dessers the centre of focus.
Alongside scoring the opener, the frontman played a significant part in Vaclav Cerny’s second which restored the lead shortly before half-time.
Graham Spiers took to X to air his views on both Rangers and their number nine, whom he described as “baffling”.
“This is magnificent from Rangers,” Spiers said.
“And as for Cyriel Dessers: is he hopeless or very good? What a goal return.
“What a baffling footballer…”
Rangers are a different beast in Europe
Dessers is so far reflective of his team as a whole, in that they just appear utterly unpredictable.
While that may work on any given day for the Gers – who have steamrolled superior financial powers in Europe this season and battered Celtic in the last Old Firm (2 January) – they have also been inexplicably poor in certain matches.
Ferguson got a taste of that at the weekend as a third-straight home game was lost against Motherwell (1 March), the manager admitting his team have an issue playing at Ibrox.
In Europe, they just seem to, as widely commented on, be able to find another gear which, while exciting when the Europa League rolls around, can be hugely frustrating when domestic football returns.
| Date | Rangers – next fixtures | Competition |
| 13 March | Fenerbahce (H) | Europa League – R16 second leg |
| 16 March | Celtic (A) | Scottish Premiership |
| 29 March | Dundee (A) | Scottish Premiership |
| 5 April | Hibernian (H) | Scottish Premiership |
Luckily for Ferguson and Rangers in the short-term, there is no Scottish Premiership fixture this weekend and sole focus can subsequently be placed on what they have to do in the second leg at Ibrox.
After that, it’s 72 hours until the Old Firm at Celtic Park. The marathon of the football season is sometimes also a sprint.