Rangers put in a shift in last night’s draw with Olympiacos.
Philippe Clement set his side up to be difficult to break down while they always looked dangerous on the counter.
Vaclav Cerny in particular was a regular threat to the Greek club with his ability on the right-flank and he had a few opportunities to cut inside and have a pop with his trademark run.
Olympiacos may have taken the lead through an excellent Ayoub El Kaabi finish 10 minutes after the break but an equally sublime strike from Cyriel Dessers stunned Karaiskakis Stadium into silence.
The statistics showed an even game on the whole in terms of chances created and moments for both goalkeeper to be alert for but it was Konstantinos Tzolakis who was the busier stopper.
Still, Gers’ dominant attacking play would not see them heading home with all three points but, rather, take one back to Glasgow to leave them 10th in the Europa League table and still hunting for a knockout spot.
In Greece, however, the media took a baffling stance on the action and blamed German referee Sascha Stegemann for preventing their club from winning the fixture.
One media outlet attacked the whistler and bullet-pointed specific moments from the 90 plus minutes in a detailed match report seemingly focusing only on fouls and tackles.
Greece’s SportDay had a lot to say as they criticised Mr Stegemann’s performance in the middle of the pitch and accused him of “bias” in favour of Rangers.
They wrote: “The refereeing of the match was tragic and to a large extent determined the final result, being clearly biased in favour of the guests. Certainly an arbitration that is not consistent with the second-ranked European competition.
Greek media accused referee Sascha Stegemann of bias in favour of Rangers
“More specifically, in the 11th minute, the assistant let the situation develop and while Dessers was clearly exposed, at least one metre behind the last defender of the “red and whites”, with Tzolakis repelling.
“A few minutes later, the first official…turned a blind eye to a clear yellow card on Sterling for a very hard tackle on Martins.
“In the 44th minute Diomande held Ese, the German indicated the advantage in the phase, but did not turn the phase back to give the foul once the possession was lost. In the second half, two more fouls in favour of the home team were not given by the German referee.
“Initially, in the 51st minute, Velde was knocked down by a player from the visitors and in the 74th minute, Bairami committed a clear foul on Rodenei in a counter-attack, but again it was not noticed by the referee.
What the Greek media said about Rangers’ draw with Olympiacos
“In addition, he did not give a clear yellow card shortly after for Raskin’s marking on Velde. Finally, in the 87th minute, he did not give a foul in favour of Olympiakos in marking on Rodenei, a phase in fact that took place next to the second assistant.”
Other outlets chose to focus on Olympiacos’ failures of their own to create chances or really threaten their visitors too much.
Another, SportTime, wrote: “The presence of Olympiacos against Rangers was as if they were playing a Greek league match. Olympiacos didn’t make chances, couldn’t create, there was no player to move between the lines and create a phase. Transfers of the ball are slow, so the only way out is for Mendilibar to find a new threat.
“They have forgotten how to win.”
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