RUSSELL MARTIN says his Rangers side took an important step forward in this evening’s impressive first leg rout of Viktoria Plzen in UEFA Champions League qualifying at Ibrox.
A brace from Djeidi Gassama and a Cyriel Dessers spot-kick built a commanding 3-0 advantage for the Gers to take to the Czech Republic in seven days’ time in a bid to seal their place in the Play-Off Round.
Speaking to RangersTV after the triumph, a delighted Martin commented: “I’m just so happy and proud of the players, the fans, the staff, and everyone involved. It was a really good night for us.
“The distances in the team were much better, the ball travelled quicker, and there were way more runs in-behind. We showed big composure and courage.
“The only thing that I’m disappointed with, and it’s my job to be really demanding with the guys, I felt in the last 15 minutes we dropped the intensity a bit and had too much of the ball in our own half rather than theirs.
“It was a really good night, especially after how we felt on Saturday and now the test for us is to get ready and make sure we put in a performance of similar energy and aggression and improve from tonight.
"I said to the players that it was what it needs to look like more and more. And we will get better.
“There were lots of stuff that we can definitely improve, but the learning and taking from Saturday, and the understand of why we were disappointed and what’s important, is what I’m really pleased with.
“The process for us is to keep getting better, try to improve, learn, and understand why we’re doing certain things and tonight we definitely did that.”
Gassama’s two goals took his tally in a Rangers jersey to four after his strikes home and away in the previous qualifying round against Panathinaikos.
He was ably assisted by fellow summer signing Oliver Antman, who produced an outstanding debut display despite only training with the squad for the first time yesterday.
It was only fitting that the pair combined for a third goal shortly into the second half, a winger-to-winger combination that saw Gassama nod home from close range.
Aarons ➡️ Antman ➡️ Gassama 👊pic.twitter.com/jWqz6VtI5h
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) August 5, 2025
Martin added: “We had way more runs in-behind, more penetration and players looking to play forward.
“We scored a goal from one winger to the other, which is a really nice goal for those guys.
“The intensity for Djeidi to run to goal, for Oliver to run in-behind, for Cyriel to attract the defender, we need more of that real positive intent in the final third. We saw a lot of that tonight so I’m really pleased.
“We scored some real quality goals tonight. Cyriel [Dessers] did a brilliant job attracting players so others could run in-behind and he took the ball in well.
“We haven’t been able to play Cyriel from the start yet because he played one game against Middlesbrough and got a bit of an injury, so we’ve been managing him back to get him on the pitch. He done great tonight.
“Oliver Antman? For him to play like that after 24 hours is amazing. He had a long medical on Sunday too.
“The most pleasing thing is that at half-time he was so keen to get on the ball in the first half and found himself in the wrong position a few times which we understand.
“Matt Gill, the assistant coach, spoke to him and showed him a few clips while I spoke to the rest of the team, and he took it on brilliantly.
“I have to give Euan [Fotheringham], the analyst, credit as well as they watched the clips together. It’s a team effort and you need to ask the players to take information on board and that was really important information because it means we’ve scored a really good goal.”