Rangers 1-1 Tottenham: Spurs escape Ibrox cauldron with point in Europa League Battle of Britain

In the past they would have billed these cross-border bouts as the ‘Battle of Britain’. Since 2006 this is where the Scottish teams appear with a water gun in a shootout. They are outgunned, outgunned, and outplayed.

Celticprevails Manchester United remains the last time an SPFL team won the upper hand. That was 18 years ago.

How close Rangers came here to buck that trend.

By the 75th minute the ‘pub league’ was leading the ‘tourist league’ thanks to a clinical strike from talisman Hamza Igamane.

When the Moroccan scored his fifth goal in five games, Rangers supporters chanted “sacked in the morning” as their former Celtic black beast Ange Postecoglou he stood motionless, his hands buried deep in his pockets.

It wasn’t meant to be at the end. While a point pushes Philippe Clément’s team one step closer to the elimination phase of Europa Leaguethey deserved more.

Igamane was a force of nature, Nico Raskin had his best game in a Rangers shirt, while Vaclav Cerny’s energy was relentless. For more than an hour, Postecoglou’s weak team presented themselves as day trips on a deer.

Substitute Dejan Kulusevski earned a point they barely deserved with a clinical finish past Jack Butland 15 minutes from time and even then they clung on.

In the closing moments of a breathless game, Rangers’ much-maligned reserve Cyril Dezers could have won twice, a late shot ruled out for offside.

About a month ago, the soundtrack to the day at Ibrox was whistled at the final whistle. The cheers that followed the display of guts, intensity and drive from the majority of the 48,064 crowd reflected the rapidly changing mood around the club.

After weeks of dreading a clash against Spurs and Celtic, Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final against their oldest rivals no longer evokes a sense of foreboding.

What impact this huge effort against English Premier League opponents has on events at Hampden remains to be seen, with the injury to centre-back John Soutar a source of legitimate concern.

They have significantly less time to rest and recover than their rivals, but if Rangers can find a way to replicate the energy and spirit they summoned here, Postecoglou’s former team – as well as his current one – will know they are in for a treat .

Over the past five years, Tottenham have been the fourth biggest net spenders in a league where money is no object. With all the swindlers coming his way – and there were some of his own backers too – Daniel Levy splashed £460m on players. Dominic Solanke, alone, cost £64 million.

You wouldn’t know it for large stretches of a game when Rangers were making their richer opponents look ordinary. Honestly, they were the better team.

Postecoglou will cite the biggest injury crisis of his 25 years in charge. The loss of his first-choice goalkeeper prompted former Celtic stopper Fraser Forster for a night of relentless booing, exacerbated by his participation in a trademark Parkhead huddle in front of the away support.

The loss of centre-backs Ben Davies, Mickey van de Ven and Christian Romero, meanwhile, has added to the air of vulnerability around a team with one win in their last eight games.

Smelling blood, Rangers went for the kill, Forster the busier of the two keepers on 90 minutes as they deserved the breakthrough, before it came from the unstoppable Igamane that quickly became a revelation.

A sign of things to come arrived when Nedim Bajrami stepped in for a lively, hungry Cerni and fired a lightning strike on goal. Forster did brilliantly to put the ball over the bar and we started to run. The gun had gone off.

When Igamane’s first-time pass brought the Czech winger out on the right side of the area, Forster was forced to drop low to save. Moments later, Jephte rolled the most enticing ball across the face of goal and it called for Bajrami’s boot to stretch out and nudge Ibrox into orbit.

The world could see Tottenham’s vulnerability. Delighted by the opening half hour and the intensity of their team, the home support enjoyed every raucous minute. The 2,500 Spurs supporters in the far corner of Ibrox stood in thoughtful silence.

Mohamed Diomande’s needless yellow card for a deliberate handball rules the midfielder out of the next game against Manchester United in January. More important for Rangers was the sight of Sutar falling to the grass with no one by his side 10 minutes before the break.

When a player with Souttar’s injuries goes down, it’s rarely good news. The centre-back limped off usefully in the 35th minute with what appeared to be a groin problem, Leon Balogun took his place.

With one eye on Sunday’s cup final, this time the anxious silence belonged to the Rangers support.

Their concern was misplaced. It took 39 minutes for an out-of-form, disheveled Spurs side to allow Butland to save from James Maddison before the offside flag was raised high in the air. Butland couldn’t know that, of course.

When Czerny forced Forster to block with his feet before half-time, Spurs were fortunate to go into the break goalless. They have hardly been to races.

It was natural to expect some reaction.

Postecoglou threw Kuluszewski instead of the deplorable Timo Werner. The change did not have the expected impact.

On his 53rd Europa League appearance, James Tavernier marked the occasion with a cross that almost brought the roof off Ibrox two minutes into the second half.

Rebounding to Igamane, the Moroccan slotted the ball past Forster and the reaction at Ibrox felt like the equivalent of a tremor in the earth’s core.

For the Spurs to find a way back into the race, they needed to up their game.

While Tottenham were energized by the arrivals of Solanke, Pape Sarr and Lucas Bergwall, Rangers began to tire. The intensity of the opening class came at a price.

Butland made a great save to deny Pedro Porro at the back post. When the team in white opened Rangers up with their sharpest move of the game, he could do nothing to stop Kuluszewski turning a low shot into the net from 14 yards.

Stunning skill and characteristically rough finishing and then an offside flag denied Dessers the last word.

Not for the first time on a hot night, Tottenham earned themselves a send-off they barely deserved.