IT SHOULD have been a massacre but Rangers just settled for a win to maintain their excellent run of form on a day when Tore Andre Flo again showed his terrific striking prowess.
Indeed some slack defending almost let Darren Mackie in for a strike 18 minutes from time which might have led to a difficult end to a game which should have been beyond Aberdeen at half-time.
However, a win was the most important aspect and Rangers got it along with good performances Ricksen and Numan to add to the display of Flo.
Rangers were simply awesome in the first half as they taught Aberdeen’s kids a lesson in passing, movement and attacking power. It was all too much for the young Dons who were fortunate to catch their breath at half-time just two behind.
In fairness it was a disastrous blunder from one of the experienced Aberdeen players which gifted Rangers the lead after just four minutes. Thomas Solberg was woefully short with an attempted passback from the right corner of his own box and Tore Andre Flo was not about to let him away with it.
Phil McGuire tried desperately to retrieve the situation but Flo held him off before stabbing a right foot shot past the helpless Peter Kjaer and Ebbe Skovdahl should have known there and then it was going to be another difficult day in Glasgow.
Rangers had such control of the match it was like a training game at times. The Dons looked like bemused onlookers as the Light Blues moved the ball around with pace and precision.
The ever elegant Ronald de Boer headed just wide from Claudio Reyna’s freekick in five minutes. Then the Dutch star set up Shota Arveladze in nine minutes but the Georgian striker fizzed his shot over the bar.
Arthur Numan hurt the Dons too with his runs down the left and it was from such a move in the 14th minute which gave a chance for a second goal for Flo but Derek Whyte made a good block on the striker’s shot to concede a corner.
With the Dons packing the midfield in a 4-5-1 formation, Advocaat changed his tactics too pushing Bert Konterman into midfield from the back leaving just Lorenzo Amoruso and Craig Moore in defence.
Despite the lack of space, Rangers were able to impose their passing game on Aberdeen and the second goal came after 20 minutes. It was all down to the vision and skill of Barry Ferguson and the clinical finishing of Flo.
Ferguson picked out the Norwegian with a wonderful 30-yard ball which Flo took down smartly and then slammed a right foot shot high into the Dons’ net..
At this stage it looked like the Dons would be swamped in a deluge of Rangers goals. They were ripped apart again in 25 minutes when Numan sent Arveladze scampering down the left.
The Georgian’s cutback for Reyna was perfect but the USA captain got under his shot and the ball flew just over the top of Kjaer’s bar.
Arveladze then hit the base of the left hand post in 27 minutes after he had left Solberg for dead. Four minutes later Ferguson played him in with another superb pass but this time Arveladze’s toich let him down.
It was so one-sided it was embarrassing but somehow Aberdeen managed to keep Rangers out. Only a brilliant block from Kjaer denied Flo his hat-trick when the former Chelsea star connected with Reyna’s freekick in 35 minutes.
Arveladze was in again in 37 minutes when Reyna found him with a super pass but this time the former Ajax star delayed his shot allowing Aberdeen time to regroup, although Kjaer deserves credit for narrowing the angle.
Dick Advocaat was not pleased, though. He gave Shota an earful because he knew that Rangers should have four or five up by this stage.
Still Rangers came storming forward and de Boer forced another good save from Kjaer in 39 minutes. Then Arveladze curled a right foot shot just wide in 41 minutes and The Dons looked a real sorry state.
There was a change in them and in Rangers in the second half. Aberdeen were better organised and more of a threat while Rangers, perhaps tired after their exertions on a heavy pitch in Moscow last Thursday, reduced the tempo of their play.
The Ibrox men still had plenty of chances to add to their lead. Reyna pulled a shot wide in 51 minutes then Flo came desperately close again in 55 minutes.
It was Numan who created it, cutting the ball back for the towering striker who turned magnificently to fool McGuire and then hit a left foot shot which flew only inches wide.
Aberdeen, though, could have forced a nervous finish had it not been for Stefan Klos. The Rangers keeper had little to do all day but his block on Darren Mackie’s shot in 72 minutes was terrific.
Claudio Caniggia and Michael Ball came on, but Rangers seemed content to simply get to the final whistle and that’s what they did. It should have been a real going over but in the end the three points were all that mattered.
RANGERS: Klos; Moore, Amoruso; Ricksen, Reyna, Konrternan, Ferguson, Numan (Ball 81); de Boer, Flo (Caniggia 71), Arverladze. Subs not used – Christiansen, Lovenkrands, McHale.
Bookings: Amoruso (70)
ABERDEEN: Kjaer; Solberg (Anderson 58), McGuire, Whyte, McAllister; Mackie, McNaughton, Tiernan, Darren Young, Winters (Clark 85); Dadi (Derek Young 66). Subs not used – Peat, O’Donoghue.
Bookings: Winters (34), Dadi (45)
Ref: Mike McCurry
Att: 49,739.
Man of the match: Tore Andre Flo.
Moment of the match: Flo’s wonderful spin and turn in the Dons box in 55 minutes.