The Thistle Archive

Daniel Candeias and Eduardo Herrera scored in extra time to knock Partick Thistle out of the Scottish League Cup quarter-final. The visitors had to regroup after Kris Doolan equalised in the 90th minute. Carlos Pena had opened the scoring with a second-half header in his first start for the Ibrox side. Rangers progressed but also gathered injury concerns ahead of Saturday's Old Firm game, with Bruno Alves and Declan John both removed to receive treatment. Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha had made three changes to his starting line up, with John and goalkeeper Jak Alnwick coming into the side along with Pena, who was accommodated by a change of shape to 4-3-3. Rangers started brightly, with Josh Windass spurning an opportunity early on, then Alfredo Morelos and Candeias both missed when one-on-one with Partick Thistle goalkeeper Ryan Scully.

Rangers were ultimately good value for their victory but not for the first time this season, they made life more difficult for themselves than seemed necessary. The tie should have been decided long before the original 90 minutes were up, but clear-cut chances came and went. They got away with that on this occasion but surely won't on Saturday against Celtic. The additional 30 minutes of football was not ideal preparation for that contest and amid their celebrations, Rangers supporters will hope Alves and John will be fit to play, with Lee Wallace also injured and Danny Wilson missing from the squad for this game. It was after Alves and John departed that Thistle really began to believe they could salvage the tie. They should have been further behind than just one goal. Pena's glancing header had given Rangers a cushion, but had Windass, Morelos and perhaps most glaringly Candeias taken chances, Caixhina would have been a lot more relaxed. Thistle grew in confidence as Rangers began to look more anxious and almost on the stroke of 90 minutes struck back when Doolan swivelled inside the six-yard box to fire high past Alnwick, who had produced three good saves to deny Partick Thistle striker Conor Sammon over the course of the match. Yet having taken the game into extra-time, Alan Archibald's Partick Thistle side quickly relinquished the hard-won parity.

Just as they had at the beginning of the second half, Rangers started extra-time strongly and Candeias made amends for his astonishing earlier miss - when he'd blasted over the bar after rounding Scully - by cutting in from the right before lashing the ball low past the keeper. And soon after, Herrera cutely flicked the ball beyond Scully to give Rangers the kind of advantage that had eluded them earlier in the evening. Thistle's wait for a first semi-final since 2002 goes on, as does Rangers' quest for a first major trophy since 2011.

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald:

It was a fantastic game to watch, just disappointing to lose. I thought the boys put so much in, we were in the ascendancy when we scored, and it's hard to put your finger on extra time, and why we dropped off. We changed our shape in the second half, we felt the lad No 27 [Pena] was causing a problem in the hole. We were just about to bring Kris Doolan on and they scored. We gave Rangers a lot of chances, which was disappointing, they came from a slack pass or dwelling on the ball. We deserved our goal when we got it, just disappointed with the reaction in extra-time, because I didn't see it coming.

Speaking to his club's website, Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha said:

I really like the performance, we created a lot of chances to kill the game earlier. I don't need to tell you much more about chances than the one Daniel faced the goal and placed the ball outside. [With regards to his second-half substitute]: Ross McCrorie is going to be one of the best centre halves in history, not just for this club but for this country. You just need to see what he did. He was brilliant. It's not about age or names. It’s about getting the chance to prove it. I have no concerns about him. I never had and never will have. If he needs to play on Saturday, he will play.

bbc.com

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