Glasgow (AFP) - Rangers needed two goals in the final 16 minutes from Scott Arfield and James Tavernier to start their Scottish Premiership season with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Livingston on Saturday.
The Europa League finalists trailed just five minutes into the new campaign when Joel Nouble lofted the ball over Jon McLaughlin.
Rangers started with three debutants in John Souttar, Tom Lawrence and Antonio Colak, but it was not until the introduction of another new signing Malik Tillman at half-time that Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men began to make their dominance of possession count.
Colak had a goal harshly ruled out for offside with VAR not set to debut in the Scottish top flight until later this season.
Rangers finally levelled on 74 minutes when Arfield guided a header into the far corner from Ryan Kent's cross.
Just two minutes later, Tavernier struck the winner in style with a free-kick that curled into the top corner.
"It was a big win.It's vital three points from a difficult away game on a difficult surface," said Van Bronckhorst.
"The start we had didn't help.It's a very easy goal that should not have happened.
"If you see the second half performance, we deserved the win.In the second half we did much better.We changed our set up and then we had 45 minutes of one-way traffic."
Hearts were also 2-1 winners on opening day as goals from Alan Forrest and Barrie McKay saw off Ross County 2-1 at Tynecastle.
Rocky Bushiri's stoppage-time winner gave Hibernian a 1-0 win at 10-man St Johnstone.
Kilmarnock also struck in injury time to mark their return to the top flight with a 1-1 draw at home to Dundee United.
Celtic begin their defence of the Scottish Premiership on Sunday when the Hoops host Aberdeen.
