Olympiacos 1-1 Rangers: Dessers leveller rescues valuable away point

Cyriel Dessers earned Rangers a priceless point at the home of the Europa Conference League winners, with his strike securing a 1-1 draw with Olympiacos.

The result left Rangers just outside the top eight in the Europa League table, while Olympiacos are one place further back, having picked up seven points from their four games.

Dessers, however, squandered a golden opportunity in the 11th minute after being sent through on goal, but could only fire his effort at the legs of Konstantinos Tzolakis.

Tzolakis was again on hand to deny the Rangers striker six minutes later, producing a stunning save to tip his effort wide as the Scottish side ended the half in the ascendency.

But their good work was undone shortly after the restart when Chiquinho’s smart backwards header found Ayoub El Kaabi, who swivelled and rifled the ball into the roof of the net.

However, Rangers responded eight minutes later, with Dessers finally getting the better of Tzolakis. The Nigerian skipped beyond the challenge of Panagiotis Retsos before curling the ball home.

Both sides pushed to try and find the winning goal in the closing stages, but the spoils were shared at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskaki.

Full-Time in Greece.

Cyriel Dessers with the finish.

Olympiacos 1-1 Rangers | #UEL pic.twitter.com/8qgBSVNjAX

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) November 7, 2024

Data Debrief: Oh I do love playing away

Rangers can leave Greece happy with a point, though could have returned to Ibrox with all three after a strong showing against Olympiacos.

They ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.13 compared to their opponents’ 0.68, despite having three less shots throughout the contest.

But their impressive form away from home in Europe continued. They are now unbeaten in their last five away matches in the Europa League (W2 D3), equalling their longest such run in the competition’s history (also five unbeaten between October 2020 – March 2021).

Dessers also impressed for Philippe Clement’s side. He has been directly involved in 10 goals across 13 away appearances in major European competitions (eight goals, two assists).