Kieran Dowell<\/a> to be nowhere near Martin’s squad this season – never mind his starting line-up.<\/p>\nThe midfielder hasn’t cut it at Ibrox and was shipped out on loan to League One outfit Birmingham City last term.<\/p>\n
Gers punters were convinced he’d be out the door when Martin was appointed but instead he’s managed to cement a place in the team.<\/p>\n
Whatever Martin sees in the 27-year-old, it’s been enough for him to put faith in Dowell for these huge Champions League qualifiers.<\/p>\n
He could easily have been the fall guy with new boy Gassama fit and pushing for a start.<\/p>\n
But again, the manager deployed Dowell on the right of his front three, with young Findlay Curtis on the other wing.<\/p>\n
To be fair to the much-maligned Scouser, he might not have created much going forward – but he put in a brilliant defensive shift for the team. And he might have an Ibrox future yet.<\/p>\n
Max Factor<\/p>\n
Martin must find a solution to the Rangers left-back situation as the season goes on.<\/p>\n
At the moment, he\u2019s relying on new boy Max Aarons to play there and, of course, the Englishman can fill the role.<\/p>\n
But it can\u2019t be a long-term plan because against dangerous opposition in Athens, he struggled.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376634629.jpg\")
Max Aarons in action<\/p>\n
Aarons was signed as a right-back, which is his natural position, but so far he can\u2019t shift Gers skipper James Tavernier.<\/p>\n
Jefte, who was the club\u2019s left-back, hasn\u2019t been given a look-in so far by the manager.<\/p>\n
But Aarons didn\u2019t look comfortable last night, up against ex-Manchester United kid Facunda Pellistri, especially in the first half.<\/p>\n
Too often, he was caught napping or on the wrong side as Panathinaikos attacked – and almost cost Rangers a goal.<\/p>\n
Basically, he looked like a right-back playing on the left.<\/p>\n
You can get away with it for so long and maybe it\u2019s a temporary fix for Martin right now.<\/p>\n
But it can\u2019t continue for a full campaign.<\/p>\n
Olympic Tame<\/p>\n
It was hot and humid in the Greek capital but nowhere near as hostile as it could have been for Rangers.<\/p>\n
That was due to the game being switched from Panathinaikos\u2019 own Apostolos Nikolaidis ground to the Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n
Granted, it allowed 40,000 of the home supporters to get in.<\/p>\n
But in an arena which holds 70,000, it was never going to be as noisy or vociferous – despite the best efforts of Panathinaikos\u2019 infamous Gate 13 Ultras.<\/p>\n
The stadium move helped Martin and his players. With a huge running track around the pitch, it wasn\u2019t a suffocating experience, even with high temperatures.<\/p>\n
After a flurry of noise pre-kick-off – and early on when Martin\u2019s men were under the cosh – it quietened down, largely due to the away side taking the sting out of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
And when Gassama struck, it killed their hope.<\/p>\n
Resilient Rangers<\/p>\n
In the Athens heat, with 40,000 home fans baying for blood, this was never going to be a pretty performance from Rangers.<\/p>\n
And in a tense first half, Martin\u2019s men found themselves under the cosh as Panathinaikos pushed to overturn the two-goal deficit.<\/p>\n
The visitors could easily have buckled under pressure but they held firm, showing grit, determination – and courage.<\/p>\n
With Jack Butland back to somewhere near his best behind a solid defence marshalled superbly by John Souttar and Nasser Djiga, they frustrated the Greeks for large parts of the game.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376630316.jpg\")
Rangers’ Nasser Djiga in action<\/p>\n
Not just with the defensive work but – at times – with a calmness in possession that Martin demands.<\/p>\n
The football isn\u2019t perfect yet but no-one can say the players aren\u2019t putting a shift in for him, which is a good sign.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what got them the result here and helped them progress in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Given where he\u2019s at in his Rangers\u2019 tenure, it\u2019s an achievement for the manager just to get through this tie.<\/p>\n
And with Plzen up next, they\u2019ve taken a huge step towards reaching the league phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer signing climbed off the bench for the second week in a row to fire a priceless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,6257,30839,596,30836,30837,30838,8998,9005,85,30835],"class_list":["post-33495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-champions-league","tag-djeidi-gassama","tag-football","tag-james-tavernier","tag-kieran-dowell","tag-nicolas-raskin","tag-rangers-fc","tag-russell-martin","tag-sports","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS376633969.jpg\")
Djeidi Gassama of Rangers celebrates scoring to make it 1-1<\/p>\n