Vaclav Cerny’s smart Rangers double at Fenerbahce gives Mourinho work to do | Europa League

Football management moves pretty fast. On Saturday Barry Ferguson was being beaten at home by Motherwell. Five days later he was leading Rangers to a famous victory in Istanbul, responding to being patronised by José Mourinho by ending Fenerbahce’s 18-match unbeaten run.

Perhaps the scoreline wasn’t as eye-catching as the 4-2 win away to Borussia Dortmund three years ago, but given the circumstances this was arguably more remarkable. Where there had been shambles, there was rigour. Where there had been diffidence, there was conviction. Where there had been incoherence, there was incisiveness. This was a result beyond Rangers’ realistic expectations, and yet there was perhaps a frustration that it wasn’t even better.

Mourinho had said in his pre-match press-conference that he anticipated a harder game against Ferguson’s Rangers than he would have faced against Philippe Clement, who was sacked last week – although that was less to do with a detailed assessment of the former midfielder than with hitting back at the Belgian after he had criticised Mourinho’s style of play. “The previous coach was more worried about philosophy than on the pitch,” Mourinho said, after performatively forgetting Clement’s name. “It’s on the pitch that you win matches, not with philosophy.” It was perhaps a reflection of that pragmatism that Ferguson started with a back three.

The Europa League represents Rangers’ only remaining chance of silverware this season, after a rotten recent run of league form that has left them 16 points off the top. A Scottish Cup exit to Queen’s Park and a home defeat by St Mirren cost Clement his job, leading to the interim appointment of Ferguson, but last weekend’s game against Motherwell suggested there would be no easy fix.

The sense had been that Rangers would have been happy just to keep the tie alive for the second leg at Ibrox next week, but within six minutes they had been gifted the lead. First Sebastian Szymanski, trying to twist out of trouble on the edge of his own box, was dispossessed by Vaclav Cerny, then another attempted clearance bounced off Mohamed Diomande to Cyriel Dessers, who skipped around the goalkeeper Irfan Can Egribayat, his shot just beating Caglar Soyuncu across the line. Dessers divides fans, but he has 22 goals this season, four of them in the three games under Ferguson.

At that stage, with the pressure applied by Cerny and Diomande clearly unsettling Szymanski, the switch to the back three looked a masterstroke. The game did, though, eventually settle into its expected pattern as Youssef En-Nesyri fired just over and Edin Dzeko, his right arm in a cast, drew a smart, low save from Jack Butland. The loss of Robin Pröpper to a head injury sustained in a collision with Butland didn’t help and the equaliser came on the half-hour, the substitute Alexander Djiku swivelling to thump in a volley after Milan Skriniar had flicked on a 30th-minute corner.

With momentum building, though, Fenerbahce inexplicably backed off. Understandably given their age profile, there is a lack of pace in the side and, when space opened up for Cerny three minutes before the break, nobody could catch him as he crafted an elegant one-two with Dessers, then finished calmly as the stadium slipped into a shocked silence that was only emphasised by the hollow echo of the celebrating Rangers fans. Their mood had been dampened by the death of a fan in a traffic accident in Istanbul in the early hours of Thursday morning. Scarves were left at the site in tribute, while a GoFundMe for the family of the victim had raised more than £30,000 within hours of being established.

Mourinho’s time in Turkey has been characteristically turbulent. There have been familiar spats with referees and complaints from fans who regard his style as overly negative, before Galatasaray accused him of racism after he described their bench hopping up and down “like monkeys”. Fenerbahce are suing, although that they are seeking 1,907,000 Turkish lire in compensation, reflecting the club’s formation in 1907, suggests the action is largely symbolic. He switched to 4-3-3 at half-time, but the main result was to make Fenerbahce more vulnerable to counters, Dessers twice having efforts ruled out for tight offsides and then getting the ball caught under his feet as he evaded a challenge after another turnover.

Fenerbahce had chances, there were a couple of desperate blocks and both Dzeko and Talisca muffed headers when well-placed, but Rangers always retained their threat. The counterattacking third they had promised so frequently did eventually arrive, Cerny capping a superb display with his second. This season of chaos may be salvaged yet.