Rangers valiant but vulnerable as Panathinaikos beaten in Champions League

When the final whistle blew on a blisteringly hot Athens night where Rangers had at points been both tremendously valiant and desperately vulnerable, Russell Martin’s side had ultimately got what they came for.

When the draw for the Champions League second round qualifier threw up Panathinaikos, it looked the most hazardous of first steps to the league phase, and Rangers rode their luck from all the way from Glasgow to Greece.

And yet while they have some Greek wastefulness and Jack Butland heroics to thank for their passage into the next round, the character demonstrated by a team in the early days of an overhaul by the new head coach was to be admired as they drew 1-1 on the night to progress 3-1 on aggregate.

Martin had asked his players to be resilient in the face of the Panathinaikos onslaught, and while other areas of their game would have been concerning, they delivered that in spades.

“We will get better. The group will grow so much from this,” Martin said after the game. That’s his challenge now, to add the quality to the foundations of the character his team has shown over these two testing encounters.

“That’s the big thing for me with Russell Martin, is that he thrives on the training ground,” former Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell said on BBC Sportsound.

“The longer he has with his players, the better they will get.

“This Rangers team showed a bit of character. It’s all positive at the moment, they just need to keep this momentum going.”