Dejan Kulusevski rescued a point for Tottenham on Ange Postecoglou’s Glasgow return in an entertaining 1-1 draw with Rangers in the Europa League.
The former Celtic manager arrived at Ibrox with an out-of-form, injury-hit side and was fortunate to leave without defeat after an unconvincing performance that leaves them winless in five games.
Postecoglou brought Kulusevski on at half time and he fired into the bottom right corner at the end of a well-worked move to keep Spurs in the hunt for automatic qualification, but they still needed a superb late save from Fraser Forster to deny Cyriel Dessers a winner.
Rangers had led when Hamza Igamane tucked home from James Tavernier’s smart pass behind the Tottenham defence just two minutes into the second half, and had the ball in the net late on when Dessers turned in from an offside position.
The hosts deserved to be ahead having had the better of the first half. Forster tipped over Nedim Bajrami’s shot and also denied Vaclav Cerny twice.
The visitors had only one shot on target – a tame effort from close range – during the first half, with the misfiring Timo Werner lacking confidence in front of goal, while the offside Brennan Johnson was somehow denied by Jack Butland’s point-blank save.
Rangers were dealt a blow when John Souttar was forced off injured in the 35th minute but they head into Sunday’s League Cup final against Celtic with confidence after another promising display.
Postecoglou: An important point but Werner performance unacceptable
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou said:
“A tough game, as expected, obviously with the atmosphere in the stadium. The first half was pretty tight with no clear-cut for either side.
“When they score straight after half-time the energy levels obviously go up and it’s going to be a tough one to claw back, but I thought we worked our way back in well.
“The substitutes made a difference and we scored a good goal, had other good moments and a great save by Fraser (Forster) at the end. In the context of where we are in Europe, an important point.”
On Timo Werner’s performance: “He wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he should. When you’ve got 18-year-olds (playing) it’s not acceptable to me and I said that to Timo. He’s a senior German international.
“The moment we’re in right now, it’s not like we’ve got many options. I need everyone to at least be going out there trying to give the best of themselves. His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.”
Boyd: Were Spurs trying?
Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd:
“Philippe Clement will be the happier of the two managers. The financial gulf between the two teams is absolutely huge. That doesn’t mean to say you can’t go and get a result, and Rangers have shown that tonight.
“It took a terrific finish from Kulusevski when he came on to get Tottenham the equaliser, but Rangers, throughout the game, caused problems. They played really, really well, had some great individual performances. Nicolas Raskin was excellent in the middle of the pitch, Jefte and Ridvan Yilmaz.
“Tottenham, at some stages in that match, you just thought to yourself, are they actually trying? Are they working hard? Because everything was so slow, even going to close Rangers’ players down, they just looked off it.
“I get that they’ve got a lot of injuries, but that should give others an opportunity to show they’re good enough to be at the club and forget about the ones that are injured.
“There are lots of top talented players in that Tottenham team that are missing, but I didn’t think they’d done enough to win the game tonight, that’s for sure.”
Kulusevski: Everyone needs to do more
Tottenham goalscorer Dejan Kulusevski speaking to TNT Sports:
“Rangers played very well, we struggled a bit. We didn’t play well enough to win the game. Rangers played a perfect game, it’s a beautiful stadium, the fans helped them a lot.
“I wanted to change something, to make something happen and I succeeded once but not enough today. It’s always important to score but we’ve got to start winning games now. It’s time to win on Sunday.
“Everybody needs to do a little more than we’re doing now.”
Clement: We should have won
Rangers manager Philippe Clement said:
“They took the challenge with both hands, they grabbed it and showed what we wanted them to show everybody.
“I still leave now thinking we should have won, we deserved to win the game but I think it was a very good advertisement for Scottish football to compete with a Premier League team at full strength.
“I want that mentality within my squad – that they were not satisfied with the point, they felt they were really close to winning.”
On John Souttar’s injury: “It’s not a good thing when you have to come off in the first half but we’ll find more in the coming days.”
