April 23, (THEWILL) – Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has offered his position on Leon Balogun’s red card in the first half of his team’s 3-1 Scottish Premiership triumph over Motherwell on Saturday afternoon.
THEWILL recalls that in the 28th minute, the Nigerian international was sent off for an early shower with a straight red card. Although leading by one goal, the red card almost proved to be the game’s turning point, as Rangers were pegged back seven minutes later by a Ross Tierney equaliser.
Fortunately for the Nigerian and his team, Scott Wright and James Tavernier scored two more goals for Rangers in the second half to give the defending champions a strong finish and all three points in their belated race to catch up with Celtic.
Referee Nick Walsh, gave Balogun his marching orders after the defender’s poor challenge on Motherwell midfielder, Dean Cornelius, but Balogun, according to Van Bronckhorst, made an actual effort to win the ball.
The Dutchman, who spoke to Rangers TV, exonerated the Nigerian of malicious intent.
Van Bronckhorst said: “Leon wanted to win the tackle, but in these circumstances the margins are very little so the ref decided to give the red card and we had to respect that, move on and make sure we had the focus on the minutes that we had to play after that sending off.
“Of course, we conceded the goal but I think we changed the game in the second half.”
Before the trip to Fir Park, Balogun had only received one red card in his Rangers career, against Slavia Prague in the Europa League last season.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
