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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Rabbi Matondo set Rangers consistency challenge by Michael Beale

Michael Beale had challenged Rabbi Matondo to prove he can be a consistent performer for Rangers.

The Wales international scored his first goal for the Ibrox club as Rangers drew 2-2 with PSV.

It was a pulsating affair during the Champions League play-off first leg. 

The 22-year-old came off the bench to replace fellow goalscorer, Adballah Sima. The substitution worked a treat as the winger latched on to an excellent ball from Cyriel Dessers to fire the hosts into a 2-1 lead during the second half.

Beale insists the attacker has got his reward for taking his chance. Although, he now wants to see more of the same from Matondo, who was a bright spark during his time on the pitch.

He responded: "For him to score his first goal tonight, it’s a reward for the work he’s done in pre-season. What people don’t see is when I came into the club, he had a knee injury that he was playing through and missed a lot of football.

"Towards the end of the season, there were two or three games where he was eye-catching, namely the derby against Celtic where I thought he was excellent. His start to the season had been good. It’s a tough old shirt to wear at times. That will do him the world of good tonight. He’s taken an opportunity. Can he do it consistently for us?"

"We had it where we wanted it," Beale continued. "We had a big chance at the end there with Danilo. So, we cannot be frustrated. We need to get on with the league game this weekend and then next week it’s a hell of a game. It’s a straight shootout and we’ll go there and we’ll have a right go again.

"I thought the front three worked really hard. Cyriel Dessers, that’s his best performance for Rangers so far. You can see he’s up to speed. He took the centre-backs on physically and he’s won that battle because he’s got two assists. I was delighted with Abdallah Sima for the goal.

"There’s moments of the game that I’d like us to stay in possession of the ball more but you have to think of the magnitude of the game and the opponent that you’re playing against. I thought we scored two fantastic goals and we’re unlucky not to get a third right at the death.

"They’re an extremely talented side going forward. There’s both a mixture of real experience in De Jong, but also I think the wide players are excellent. Defensively we had to be strong. Our disappointment is we kept Jack (Butland) pretty much clean and we conceded the second goal off a set play. At the other end of the pitch we think we can hurt them. At times tonight we showed that and we’re going to have to show that next week in Eindhoven."

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