Dundee Utd 0 – 1 Rangers

An early goal from Tom Lawrence was enough for Rangers to beat Dundee United 1-0 in the Scottish Premier League, leapfrogging their opponents into third place.

Philippe Clement and his team were under pressure to respond after losing 3-0 to Old Firm rivals Celtic before the international break. The reaction was immediate.

Lawrence scored a beautiful solo, which he started after a nice pass from Cyriel Dessers. This allowed him to slide past Jack Walton within seven minutes.

Rangers continued to bombard the Dundee United area, but the first half ended somewhat controversially. Emmanuel Adegboyega made a powerful foul on Connor Barron, catching his foot, but was only shown a yellow card.

VAR did review the decision on the pitch, but upheld referee Don Robertson’s decision. It was perhaps no surprise that Adegboyega was substituted at half-time, given that Rangers also gave a debut to Deadline Day single Nedim Bajrami.

United were better in the second half – despite failing to register a single shot on target in the game – and could have equalised in the 55th minute. However, Kristijan Trapanovski’s shot went wide.

Lawrence came close twice more, but it was his early goal that decided the game at Tannadice. Rangers move above Dundee United, although they are still five points behind Celtic. Jim Goodwin’s side drop to fourth and have lost their first Scottish Premiership game of the season.

Story of the match in statistics…

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