Liam Kelly saves penalty as ten-man Rangers earn draw against Athletic Bilbao

Rangers earned a 0-0 draw with Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final, shutting out the Spanish side despite playing the vast majority of the game with ten men.

Robin Propper was sent off after just 13 minutes, and Liam Kelly saved a second-half penalty, but Rangers fought to get a result that means Barry Ferguson’s side have everything to play for in Bilbao next week.

After his side’s 2-0 home defeat to Hibernian last weekend, Ferguson had promised a shakeup of his side and there were six changes in the Rangers starting line-up.

Two were enforced, with John Souttar and Mohamed Diomande suspended, but the manager made a big call to drop goalkeeper Jack Butland, with Jefte, Connor Barron and Hamza Igamane also moving to the substitutes bench. Liam Kelly, Bailey Rice, Ridvan Yilmaz, Leon Balogun, Ianis Hagi and Robin Propper all came into the side.

They had barely settled when Rangers hopes were dealt a serious blow.

A slack pass into midfield allowed Inaki Williams to run at the Rangers defence. Robin Propper fouled the Athletic attacker on the edge of the box and was initially shown a yellow card but after a VAR review the yellow was upgraded to a red with the defender judged to have prevented a goalscoring opportunity. Rangers were down to ten men with 77 minutes to play.

Athletic had most of the ball in the first half, enjoying the man advantage but without making too many clear cut opportunities at first. Rangers were restricted in their attacking, but Cyriel Dessers did see an quickly-taken shot on the turn drift by the post in the 22^nd minute.

Maroan Annadi had a header over the bar and the forward then forced Kelly into an impressive save to tip a goalbound shot over the bar.

Nico Williams put a shot over the bar when he should have done better, and Athletic had a penalty claim when Inaki Williams went down under a challenge from Ianis Hagi but the Rangers midfielder won the ball fairly.

Just before half time Dessers had a header that failed to hit the target and the teams went in level at the break.

Athletic should have been ahead just before the hour mark. A low first-time cross from the right found Sannadi and he missed a golden opportunity, putting his finish wide when he should have beaten Kelly and found the net.

Rangers were forced into a change when Rice was injured from a collision and had to be stretchered off. Connor Barron replaced the youngster.

Athletic put the ball in the net in the 76^th minute when Alex Berenguer tucked away a shot on the rebound but that was only the beginning of a long VAR intervention.

The officials had to rule on three incidents within the one play. Handball by an Athletic player was ruled out, then the goal was shown to be offside. However, a subsequent check showed the ball had struck Sterling’s arm.

Athletic’s goal was disallowed but they were awarded a penalty. Berenguer stepped up, thumped a shot down the middle and Kelly saved with his leg to keep the scores level.

The visitors kept up the pressure, and 12 minutes were added to make up for the time play stopped for Rice when he was injured.

Berenguer and the Williams brothers continued to probe for openings and Rangers were reduced to nine men for the final few minutes when Sterling suffered an injury.

A late break forward saw Rangers have set piece opportunities with a free-kick and then corner and they came to nothing but allowed the team to see out the final seconds and enjoy a result that kept their hopes of progress alive.