Rangers’ hit and miss striker Cyriel Dessers redeemed himself against Olympiacos with a second-half equaliser in the 1-1 Europa League draw in the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium.
On a night when 33-year-old Gers captain James Tavernier was dropped to the bench, the Light Blues did lots of things right in the first half but Dessers, who regularly frustrates the Gers fans, spurned two good opportunities and there were other half-chances for the Ibrox side.
Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side took the lead in the 56th minute through Moroccan forward Ayoub El Kaabi, who scored the winner for the Greek side in the Conference League final against Fiorentina last season.
However, Dessers levelled with a composed finish eight minutes later for his second goal this week, after notching in the 2-1 comeback win over Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final on Sunday.
It was no more than Philippe Clement’s side deserved and they moved on to seven points from 12 and are still in with a chance of progressing into the knockout stages, albeit with games against Manchester United and Tottenham to come.
The Belgian boss took the big decision to replace Tavernier with right-back Dujon Sterling while defender Robin Propper and midfielder Mohamed Diomande came in for Leon Balogun and injured Tom Lawrence, who Clement confirmed was out for four-to-six weeks with a leg injury.
There were officially around 1,600 Gers fans inside the ground but they could hardly be heard amid the ear-splitting noise from the home supporters in the 33,000-plus capacity stadium.
However, Rangers started well.
In the 11th minute Dessers was sent clear by Nedim Bajrami and had only Kostas Tzolakis to beat but his unconvincing shot struck the goalkeeper’s leg, although offside may have been called had the Gers striker netted.
Dessers then slammed the ball low against Tzolakis from eight yards after taking Vaclav Cerny’s cut back in an impressive Rangers attack.
The visitors were industrious, mobile and growing in confidence with the long diagonal pass a favourite tactic.
Cerny tried his luck just after the half-hour mark with a drive but Tzolakis was down to save at his left-hand post, while Gelson Martins’ angled-drive at the other end found the side-netting, with Gers stand-in captain Jack Butland covering his right-hand post.
The Olympiacos faithful were not happy with the performance of German referee Sascha Stegemann and let him know as he left the field at the interval, but their own players had been subdued.
Tavernier was left on the bench when Clement took off Sterling in the second half, with Neraysho Kasanwirjo the replacement.
Rangers soon found themselves behind when Chiquinho headed down a long ball inside the box for El Kaabi who had time and space to turn and drive high past Butland.
Kasanwirjo curled a pass from Cerny past the far post from the edge of the box and Chiquinho came close with a similar effort moments later as the Ibrox side looked to respond.
And Dessers made up for earlier misses when he took a pass from Cerny and watched Olympiacos captain Panagiotis Retsos slide past him, before he beat Tzolakis with a fine finish for his ninth goal of the season.
The Govan side pushed for the winner.
In the 73rd minute Bajrami’s drive from just inside the box after creating the space himself was clutched out of the air by Tzolakis and Dessers had another run at goal before he was caught by defender Rodinei.
Hamza Igamane took over from Dessers in the 84th minute as Tavernier replaced Cerny and Ross McCausland came on for Bajrami but the visitors had to settle for the point.
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