Glasgow Rangers of Scotland’s in-form striker, Cyriel Kolawole Dessers put aside the disappointment of Sunday’s 1-1 home draw with The Gers’ citymates and eternal rivals, Celtic FC, to reflect on his team’s gallant outing in this season’s UEFA Europa League.
Sports247 reports that, while Dessers took his haul to 29 goals this season, yet remains out of favour with the Super Eagles, the lad with a Belgian father and Nigerian mother admitted it was another setback to the season for him and his teammates.
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The home draw means Rangers are stuck in second place on 67 points in the Scottish Premiership, while Celtic are runaway champions with 85 points, leaving Dessers with only fond memories of his team’s gallant efforts on the continent to flaunt by him and his colleagues.
The greatest of those efforts came in the Europa League, as The Gers, who also featured Leon Aderemi Balogun back in their starting line-up for Sunday’s game at Ibrox Stadium, got to the quarter-finals at the expense of Fernebahce of Turkey and put up a great show versus Manchester United of England earlier on, with Dessers having also scored in their 2-1 loss to The Red Devils.
Dessers, who netted a total of three goals in 12 Europa League appearances and one from two games earlier in the UEFA Champions League, admitted that losing to Athletic Bilbao of Spain in the quarter-finals hurt him and his teammates a lot.
He recounted, “In the first place, we were hurt because we were not blown away. We felt there was a chance for us to go through and qualify for the semi-final. So, us not making it really hurt.”
Dessers, who joined Rangers from Cremonense of Italy, after he previously twinkled in the Netherlands with Lokeren, NAC Breda, FC Utrecht, Heracles Almelo and Feyenoord as well as at RKC Genk of Belgium, consoled himself with memories of how The Gers battled so hard to emerge with a shock qualification spot from their tough group in the UEL.
“After a few days, we started feeling a little bit of pride about the European run we had, especially as we saw ourselves in the hardest Europa League draw before we started the competition. But we survived the group phase.
“Not only did we qualify, we also got to the top eight. So, I think that’s something to be proud of,” reminisced Dessers, whose 44th minute goal on Sunday was cancelled out by Celtic’s Nigerian-born winger, Adam Idah in the 57th minute.
