RANGERS manager Malky Thomson saluted his side’s maturity as the SWPL 1 champions brushed aside mini-tournament hosts AC PAOK in Greece yesterday afternoon with a thrilling second-half display at the Katerni Stadium.
The first half in Greece ended in stalemate – and, in truth, the hosts had enjoyed the better of the Champions League qualifier’s opening 45 minutes – before the Glasgow team put their Greek opponents to the sword with a thrilling second-half showing.
Goals from stand-in captain Nicola Docherty, Hannah Davison, an own-goal and Lizzie Arnot secured a valuable victory for the Scottish champions that secures their place in the two-legged play-offs for Europe’s premier club competition. Win that, and they will find themselves in the group stages proper.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” manager Malky Thomson told Rangers TV. “I think when you venture into anything in life, the hard work that the guys are doing has certainly paid off – and you could see that.
“I think in the first half it was extremely hard-fought. The players were extremely disciplined in the first half and were hard to break down.
“But I think that the fitness levels with our team – plus the fact that we stuck to the plan, had full concentration, we kept possession of the ball – we are slowly but surely grinding teams down and there is a real maturity about them now.
“They are starting to become aware of, whether we score in the first minute or the last minute or whether it’s 1-0 or 4-0, it’s irrelevant. It’s about winning.”
PAOK started brightly in the opening 45 minutes but failed to make the most of their advantage. The Greeks failed to capitalise on a succession of set-pieces – something that would come back to haunt them during the second half.
Rangers were like a new team as the match restarted after the interval. Now it was Thomson’s team seizing the initiative, pinning their opponents back and subjecting them to wave after wave of attack. Five minutes into the second half, PAOK’s resistance finally crumbled.
Docherty was first to get in on the act. A long ball forward from Davison was hastily palmed over the bar from the PAOK keeper and the resulting corner was initially headed clear. It fell to Docherty, 25 yards from goal, who dinked the ball over the defence. Out came PAOK goalkeeper Panagiota Chatzicharistou to meet it, but her mis-cued run resulted in the ball bobbing over her and into the back of the net for 1-0.
That seemed to spark a sense of assuredness amongst the Rangers players and it wasn’t long before the second goal arrived. Shortly before the hour-mark, a well-timed run from Davison caught out the PAOK defence as she nodded home a Chelsea Cornet free-kick delivery to leave the Scots in the driving seat.
Arnott came off the bench with 25 minutes to go and the former Manchester United player would make her presence known during her brief cameo. Rangers’ third will go down as an own-goal from Maria Papaioannou, but the credit lay entirely with Arnott. The 26-year-old Scotland internationalist’s corner on 78 minutes was surely goal-bound anyway; Papaioannou merely confirmed the inevitable by inadvertently steering the ball over the line and into the back of her own net.
There was still time for one more, though, and this time there could be no doubt over the scorer’s identity. A low cross fizzed into the PAOK box was spilled by Chatzicharistou and Arnott was lurking close by, greedily hoovering up the loose ball to secure an emphatic win for her team.
“It feels really great,” Davison told Rangers TV. “I’m really proud of how we came out in the second half and had a lot of answers to the problem that we were seeing.
“It was a huge team win and a great effort from everyone that came into the game; everyone from the bench. It was great.”
