Last 32 still on for Feyenoord after draw

Advocaat said the day before the game that Feyenoord would be better organised against the Glaswegians. He felt they had lost the first encounter between the two because they had given Rangers too much space to play in. The Scots won that game 1-0 and another loss would eliminate Feyenoord immediately.

His players had listened well, putting in a tidy performance in the first half. After some grappling early on Feyenoord started to rack up the chances. Eric Botteghin headed into keeper Allan McGregor’s hands, Leroy Fer rattled the bar with his own header and Luis Sinisterra shot over or wide on several occasions.

Toornstra opens scoring
Jens Toornstra had more fortune. The midfielder intercepted, played a one-two with Sam Larsson and rifled in a shot. Taking a big deflection off a defender’s hand, the ball beat McGregor to give the hosts the lead.

Feyenoord could have built up a more comfortable cushion as the first half wore on. Their failure to do so would be savagely punished after the break by a much more dynamic Rangers. Alfredo Morelos struck twice in fifteen minutes for the Scots to leave Feyenoord chasing the game. The Colombian grabbed goals four and five of his European campaign, both with his head.

Sinisterra saves a point
Toornstra found Orkun Kökcü on the left, who played a deep ball for  Sinisterra to chase. Feyenoord’s   Colombian beat the defender and chipped the ball deftly over the keeper. In an exciting end to an eventful game, Feyenoord threatened to claim all the points to square up the group, but they couldn’t quite manage to get the ball over line. The draw leaves Rangers on top of Group G with eight points.

Feyenoord trail in fourth with five points. The qualification equation is fairly straightforward: Feyenoord must win at Porto (the Portuguese are third on seven points) on Thursday 12 December, and hope that Rangers FC win their home game against Young Boys (second on seven points) in Glasgow at the same time.