Late goals give Rangers win over Chelsea

Rangers 2 Chelsea 0

Nacho Novo and Filip Sebo hit late goals to sink Chelsea and set up Rangers perfectly for their Champions League second-round qualifier against FK Zeta.

Novo opened the scoring after 86 minutes but it was Sebo’s strike 60 seconds later which captured the imagine of the home fans, who hope he is finally ready the shed the joke-figure image he acquired during his debut season at Ibrox.

Rangers will no doubt take plenty of positives from the performance against the Barclays Premier League giants, with their European campaign about to begin in earnest.

The trip to Glasgow marked the penultimate game in Chelsea’s own pre-season preparations.

They face Denmark’s Brondby on Tuesday night before tackling Manchester United, the team who denied them the English title, in the Community Shield on August 5.

John Terry, fresh from signing a new five-year deal which reportedly makes him England’s highest-paid player on £130,000 a week, recovered from a toe injury in time to lead out the Stamford Bridge side at Ibrox. Summer signings Florent Malouda, Steve Sidwell and Tal Ben Haim were also named in the starting line-up.

Arjen Robben’s absence from the squad was the result of a knee injury rather than speculation of an imminent move to Real Madrid for the Dutch winger.

The 11 players named by Walter Smith were identical to the line-up selected by the Rangers manager for Tuesday’s friendly against Ajax, suggesting he has now settled on the team likely to begin the new Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign which gets under way in Inverness a week today. Before then, Rangers take on Zeta on Tuesday.

Apparently, no-one was willing to take their place in Smith’s plans for granted though and Rangers hassled and harried their glamorous visitors from the first whistle.

Jean-Claude Darcheville, the man dubbed ’The Rocket’, left Terry in his wake when he exploded down the flank and left the side-netting shuddering from the impact of his right-footed effort.

Sasa Papac then sliced a diagonal ball into the path of Kris Boyd but the move was easily read by Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper racing off his line to smother before the striker had the chance to pull the trigger.

’Jose, thanks for Seville’ proclaimed a banner among the near-capacity crowd, referencing Mourinho’s triumph as Porto manager over Rangers’ bitter rivals Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup final.

But, on the pitch at least, the love-in was about to come to an end.

A cynical Barry Ferguson foul on Malouda earned the Rangers captain a quiet word in his ear from referee Stuart Dougal, as well as a sneaky push from Didier Drogba. Malouda then made a scything tackle on Ferguson minutes later.

The former Lyon man then turned his focus back to the football, flighting a cross onto the head of Drogba, whose header flashed across the face of goal and past the upright. Malouda also tried his luck before the break, his long-range strike whistling past the static Allan McGregor and harmlessly wide.

Half-time prompted a flood of substitutions, Chelsea making four changes and Rangers making six, handing a home debut to former Manchester United and West Ham goalkeeper Roy Carroll.

Chelsea’s Ashley Cole then made his first appearance since undergoing an ankle operation in the summer when he replaced Glen Johnson early in the second half.

Terry picked up the first booking of the game for tangling with Sebo before the striker, famous for his failings at Rangers last season, somehow managed to mis-kick in front of goal from eight yards after being released by Nacho Novo.

At the other end, Carlos Cuellar was in the right place at the right time to block a point-blank shot from Claudio Pizarro on the line before the new Chelsea recruit tested Carroll with a stinging effort seconds later.

It was Rangers who found the back of the net as the game raced towards its conclusion. A surging Chris Burke run preceded Novo’s strike, which he smashed home off the inside of the post, before Sebo sent Ibrox into raptures a minute later with a thunderous effort, albeit one which took a big deflection.

The flashes of brilliance widely expected from Chelsea’s superstars failed to illuminate the match as much as the luminous yellow strips they wore.

It was hard to think anything other than they were biding their time until it really matters.

As for Rangers, the hard work starts now.