Steven Gerrard lays down Rangers challenge for ‘typical’ Alfredo Morelos as he salutes record-equalling striker

Steven Gerrard has heaped praise on Rangers matchwinner Alfredo Morelos after he climbed off the bench to fire the winner and match Ally McCoist’s European record for the club.

The Ibrox boss sent Morelos on in the second half and it didn’t take him long to get his goal as he got his head on the end of an exquisite Borna Barisic cross to open the scoring.

The Colombian was left on the bench with Kemar Roofe handed the starting slot but looked back to his best for his half an hour on the park.

And Gerrard admits it’s ‘typical’ of him to win Rangers the game, as he’s done so often over the last three years at the club.

It was the Colombian’s 21st goal in European competition for the club but Gerrard has again laid down a challenge to Morelos to now match McCoist in the medal stakes.

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When asked about him matching the record, he said: “Incredible. Incredible. Ally McCoist is a legend of the club. I’ve said before the difference is, Ally went on and won many many awards. We hope Alfredo can one day, add medals to his collection as well.

“But he’s a top class forward, he’s always attacking under the cross bar and we know we have quality from the sides. That’s what was missing from the first half. We were getting into those areas and Borna’s delivery even in the first half were really good but it was a wonder cross. Right under the cross bar and he was brave because there was flying studs there.

“Typical Morelos, he goes and wins us the game. A top team performance and I’m very happy.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – OCTOBER 29: Alfredo Morelos scores to make it 1-0 Rangers during a Europa League group stage match between Rangers and Lech Poznan at Ibrox Stadium, on October 29, 2020, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

“It helps having the amount of numbers behind us that we do. We wanted to take Alfredo out of the firing line in the last couple of games to freshen him up. We felt like he needed a rest, we always knew if the game was in the balance or if we needed to push we could with Aribo, with Barker, with Morelos, we had real good options behind us. We’ve managed to offload a few for the weekend as well when we have another big game.

“It’s been a big night for us the players performed and carried out the game plan really well.”

Rangers again kept a clean sheet, to make it 14 clean sheets in 17 games this season and Gerrard insists that is as important as anything else.

Connor Goldson and Leon Balogun were rocks at the heart of the defence and Lech Poznan struggled to create any real clear cut chances.

Gerrard added: “We wanted that base for us to go and attack well from. We don’t want to be involved in games where it’s up and down and it’s like a game of basketball where you’ve got to do lots of countering and waste a lot of energy chasing the opposition.

“We want to be organised, we want to be set and that does give us a base. There’s not many shots that have gone on our goal today. I think they’ve had a couple of crosses and set pieces but in the main, Allan has been quiet and long may that continue.

“It was a good performance, really strong. I thought we were better in the second half. We were okay in the first half but I want us to win the ball back in certain areas and we never really had that quality.

“We’ve beat a good team tonight, a dangerous team. A team who run through the middle aggressively against you so it’s a big win. Six out of six and a really strong start to the group.”