Rangers earn vital away draw with Dynamo Kyiv in Champions League qualifier

Rangers have earned a vital away draw with Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

An injury-time goal by Cyriel Dessers with the last kick of the match was enough to seal a well-deserved 1-1 result that puts the Scottish side in a good position ahead of the return game.

Philippe Clement’s men opened their European campaign against the Ukrainian side in Poland on Tuesday night.

Andriy Yarmolenko opened the scoring from close range after the Rangers defence were cut apart just after the half-hour mark.

And despite some promising attacks and good spells of possession from Rangers, it looked like it was enough to seal a 1-0 victory.

But Dessers popped up in the last minute of injury time to grab the equaliser that leaves the teams tied ahead of the second match at Hampden on Tuesday.

They will return to Glasgow for the second-leg at Hampden next week with a place in the playoff stage against either FC Twente or RB Salzburg.

The losers will drop into the Europa League where they will go straight into the group stage.

Rangers made a strong start in Lublin with both Dessers and Tom Lawrence forcing saves from Dynamo goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan in the opening minutes.

Ross McCausland also came close to breaking the deadlock when his long-range shot struck the woodwork.

The winger did well to create space for himself on the right-hand side before letting fly with a curling effort that had the keeper beat but hit the outside of the post.

However, they continued to look vulnerable at the back and struggled to deal with the quick counter-attacking football of the Ukrainian side.

The hosts had the ball in the net after 17 minutes but Vanat’s close-range header was denied by the assistant referee who raised his flag for offside.

Jack Butland also made a good save to keep the scores level just minutes later when he denied a long-range effort.

Kyiv did find themselves in front though when Yarmolenko finished off a slick move down when he tapped in a low cross from yards out to make it 1-0.

Ridvan Yilmaz was badly exposed as Dynamo burst forward and Vanat drilled it across the box to give the captain an easy goal and they remained a goal-ahead going into the break.

Rangers came out of the traps early in the second-half as they searched for an equaliser.

Dessers looked as if he had scored with a bullet header but Bushchan made a brilliant diving save to keep Dynamo ahead.

The game started to open up again with Kyiv looking particularly dangerous in the wide areas and Butland did well to prevent a second.

Rangers continued to create chances as well and a looping header from Tom Lawrence forced the Kyiv keeper into action again.

They continued to attack but as the game went on they would have been aware of the dangers of conceding a second goal that would give them a mountain to climb in the second leg.

Clement rang the changes with Dujon Sterling, Vaclav Cerny, Jefte and Kieron Dowell, who were all brought on for the closing stages.

And just as it looked as though Rangers would take a defeat back to Glasgow, Dessers turned the ball into the net in the 94th minute to secure a vital draw.

Cerny done well on the right-hand side before whipping in a cross into the box and the Nigerian forward, who gave the Kyiv defence a hard time of it all game, was in the right place at the right time to notch it home.

The 1-1 was probably a fair result over the piece but Rangers will maybe even feel they done enough to win the game and will feel increasingly confident of finishing the job back at Hampden.