Rangers fringe player could now start vs Celtic after ‘brilliant’ BBC Sportscene footage – Neil McCann
Danilo is in line to start against Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final on Sunday after his match-winning performance for Rangers on Wednesday night.
Danny Rohl secured his second consecutive win in charge as Rangers beat Hibernian 1-0 at Easter Road in the Scottish Premiership.
Rohl has now won double the league games Russell Martin did at Ibrox, with Martin winning just one in eight games and the German winning two out of two.
Wednesday night’s win in Edinburgh propelled the Gers up to third in the table, five points behind Celtic, who won 4-0 over Falkirk in Martin O’Neill‘s first game back in charge at Parkhead.
Up next for the two Glasgow sides is an Old Firm semi-final at Hampden Park this Sunday.
Danilo impresses with ‘brilliant’ goal vs Hibernian
Danilo bagged his third goal of the season as Rangers battled their way to three points over Hibs on Wednesday night.
The Brazilian netted in the fifth minute, before Jack Butland saved an 87th-minute penalty from Jamie McGrath to help secure the Light Blues’ victory.
Danilo has now scored in back-to-back league games, leading to former Rangers winger and coach McCann claiming that he should be in Rohl’s starting line-up when they take on Celtic this weekend.
“He’s got really soft finishes. Watch this touch, he rolls his studs and that is a typicalled styled finish from Danilo. It’s not about power, it’s actually just pretty. It’s accurate, it’s finessed, there’s not much back-lift on it. It’s a brilliant finish,” said McCann on BBC Sportscene on Wednesday night.
“Danilo has certainly given Danny Rohl something to think about towards Sunday and if he’s going to go with two strikers, I think he’s going to have to be one of them with two goals in two games.”
McCann wasn’t the only one impressed by Danilo’s goal in Rangers’ win.
Steven Thompson also raved about his “brilliant” finish on Sportscene, while James McFadden dubbed Danilo’s goal as “magnificent” on Sky Sports’ coverage of the game on Wednesday night.
Who will start vs Celtic?
It’s fair to say that Rohl sprung some surprises when he named his starting line-up against Hibs.
He made five changes in total from the team that beat Kilmarnock on Sunday, presumably with the semi-final versus Celtic at the forefront of his mind.
Nasser Djiga, Max Aarons, Connor Barron, Mikey Moore and Youseff Chermiti all returned to the starting line-up, despite the majority of them being players who were widely criticised during Martin’s time at the club.
James Tavernier, Thelo Aasgaard, Djedi Gassama, Bojan Miovski and Mohamed Diomande were all among the substitutes in Edinburgh, and there’s a chance they could all be back in the side this weekend at Hampden.
However, one change that Rohl might be apprehensive about making is to move Danilo back out of the side, with Sofascore‘s stats showing just how well he performed in his 45 minutes on the pitch at Hibs.
With two goals in two games, plus the fact that he only played the first half on Wednesday, suggests he will be in from the off against O’Neill’s men on Sunday.
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