Glasgow Rangers quickly bounced back from their Europa League disappointment on Thursday night with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win over St Johnstone on Sunday night in the Scottish Premiership.
The Light Blues, playing at Ibrox for the second time in a week, secured all three points thanks to goals either side of half-time from Wolfsburg loanee Vaclav Cerny.
They were made to work for the win late on, however, as Ianis Hagi – on his return to action – was shown a red card for a studs-up challenge in midfield, but held on to keep a clean sheet.
One of the most impressive performers for Philippe Clement’s Rangers side on the night at Ibrox was, of course, the scorer of the two goals – Cerny.
Vaclav Cerny's performance in numbers
The Czechia international opened the scoring in the 34th minute of the match by brilliantly nutmegging the defender on the edge of the box before bending a left-footed finish into the far bottom corner.
That was a moment of individual brilliance from the right winger but the second goal came from the creativity and passing range of Hagi, who was later sent off, as the Romania international fizzed a superb pass into the forward, who controlled well and finished with his weaker right foot inside the box.
Cerny’s all-round play did still leave a little bit to be desired, however, as the winger completed one of his combined eight cross and long pass attempts.
He also lost five of his six duels against St Johnstone defenders, which shows that they found it too easy to get the better of him in physical contests.
His two fantastic goals more than made up for any other weaknesses in his performance on Sunday, but he was not the top performer for Rangers, as John Souttar excelled at the back.
John Souttar's performance in numbers
The Scotland international was colossal at the heart of the Rangers defence and dealt with almost everything that was thrown at him to help his side to a clean sheet.
In the first half, Souttar marshalled the back line brilliantly and won 100% of his ground duels before he had to deal with the pace of Adama Sidibeh off the bench in the second half.
The speedy St Johnstone substitute was no match for the former Hearts star, however, as he failed to beat the Scotsman in any foot races, with the centre-back maintaining his 100% ground duel success rate.
Sofascore rating
7.7
Duels won
5/6
Tackles + interceptions
4
Blocks
1
Clearances
3
As you can see in the table above, Souttar won 83% of his duels in total during the game and earned himself a Sofascore rating of 7.7 for his superb defensive display.
The central defender also completed 91% of his attempted passes and created one chance for his teammates, which shows that he was composed and reliable in possession for the Light Blues.
Overall, the Scottish titan was crucial to Rangers’ play out of possession to provide a platform for the attackers and enjoyed a terrific all-round performance, which is why he was even better than Cerny – who struggled at times aside from his goals.
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