Rangers U19's have kept their dreams of advancing to the last 16 in the UEFA Youth League alive as Zak Lovelace's double followed up a Robbie Ure opener to beat Napoli in Italy on Wednesday afternoon.
With Rangers ' only other win in the group stages coming against their Italian counterparts in a 3-2 victory back in September, David McCallum's men travelled to the Amalfi Coast in the hope of winning a second game to put them just one point behind Ajax as the season intensifies. With Napoli only picking up one point so far this term - a 1-1 home draw against the Dutch giants last time out - Rangers knew that a win here would put them in with a huge shout of qualifying for the knockout rounds with one game to go.
And they did so in style through Ure and Lovelace, who duly delivered against the Italians to give set up a final day showdown with the Amsterdam-based youths.
Ure's strike just 20 minutes into the second half gave Rangers a lead they desired, and the ball was set rolling from there. The youngster's second strike in as many games showed his prowess in front of goal, before Lovelace's awesome hit just two minutes later had the away side in the ascendency as they chased their second win of the campaign.
That almost came crashing down in first half stoppage time, as Napoli equalised. A penalty from Alessandro Spavone three minutes into added time looked set to half the deficit by the break, before the youngster doubled his tally three minutes later to leave a shellshocked Rangers headed into the interval even.
But Lovelace's magic proved to be too much for the home side once again, and his penalty just seven minutes after the restart regained the lead - which Rangers held on to for more than an hour to grab all three points.
The result now means that if Ajax's youth side lose to Liverpool later today, Rangers would only need to beat the Dutchmen to qualify for the round of 16. It's a far cry from the men's side, at least!
