The right winger who Rangers must shut down to reach Champions League

The National

21 hours ago

The experienced Belgium international midfielder, a veteran of many European campaigns during his 11 seasons as a player at the Jan Breydel Stadium, was certainly elated with the hard-fought victory over the formidable Austrians.
However, the 32-year-old, who pitched in with the hosts' final goal in the last minute of regulation time to secure a 4-2 aggregate triumph, was less than enamoured with the overall performance.
'We'll have to raise our game against Rangers,' said the Blue Blacks captain. 'We have already played against them in pre-season and drawn. But this will be a completely different story.'
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Vanaken's cautious words suggest that his team, very much like Russell Martin's side, have not produced the sort of form of which they are capable of at this early stage in the new campaign despite their highly impressive midweek victory.
Could the presence of one man in their starting line-up at Ibrox next Tuesday evening and then over in Bruges the following week, though, mean the next two encounters between the Belgian and Scottish giants have a different outcome to their friendly tussle in Govan at the start of last month?
Fans of Club Brugge, who drew with Celtic at Parkhead in the Champions League league phase last term and qualified for the last 16 following an emphatic knockout round play-off win over Atalanta of Italy, are hopeful that summer acquisition Carlos Forbs can elevate them to a higher level in the coming months.
The Portuguese winger has struggled to fulfil his vast potential in his embryonic career to date. He failed to make the breakthrough to the first team at Manchester City after eight years in the youth ranks at the Etihad Stadium and was sold to Ajax for €14m two years ago.
But he hardly featured at the Johan Cruyff Arena and returned to England last year when he was farmed out to Wolves on loan. He was involved in 10 Premier League games during his time at Molineux. However, no bid was forthcoming and he returned to Amsterdam in May.
(Image: SNS) The chance to get the regular first team football with Club Brugge this season was appealing to the 21-year-old and he agreed, after helping Portugal to make it through to the quarter-finals of the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia in June, to a €6m transfer to Belgium last month.
His manager Nicky Hayen, who has lifted the Belgian Cup and Belgian Super Cup this year to make amends for surrendering the Pro League title to Royal Union Saint-Gilloise, has stressed that it will take Forbs time to get up to speed.
But his individual display against Salzburg strongly suggested that when he does his new employers will have a potent attacking weapon on their hands. The statistics told the story at the end of 90 breathless minutes. He attempted the most dribbles (eight), succeeded with the most dribbles (five) and had the most touches in the opposition box (nine).
The highlight of his outstanding showing was the goal he scored with seven minutes of regulation time remaining. He intercepted a pass from Jacob Rasmussen, ran half the length of the park and slotted beyond goalkeeper Alexander Schlager from a tight angle to make it 2-2 on the night and 3-2 overall.
The home supporters in the 23,736-strong crowd erupted. A star was born. The new hero received a standing ovation when he was replaced late on. His new team mates were effusive in their praise following the final whistle.
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"We know his qualities,' said Vanaken. 'He's fast and he can make moves with both his left and his right foot. You really can't defend against him. Forbs is an absolute weapon for us."
Joaquin Seys - who started a remarkable second half fightback by the home favourites, who had fallen 2-0 down and 2-1 behind on aggregate in the first-half, when he netted on the hour mark - is convinced that more, much more, is to come to from the lightning quick and skilful wide boy. 'He's a fantastic player,' said the left-back. 'We're going to see more great things from him."
The sudden emergence of Forbs should be a concern for former Scotland centre-half Martin as left-back has been something of a problem position in his side during the early weeks of his tenure.
He has played Jefte there in Rangers' last three games. But the Brazilian winger slipped just before half-time in the third qualifying round match against Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Republic on Tuesday night, failed to clear a high ball which he should have dealt with easily and allowed Rafiu Durosinmi to pull one back for the hosts.
(Image: SNS) In the three games before that, against Panathinaikos of Greece and Motherwell at Fir Park, it was Max Aarons who was given the nod in the specialist position in the back four. But the Bournemouth loanee prefers to be deployed on the right flank and it showed.
With Ridvan Yilmaz locked in talks with Besiktas in his native Turkey and a move back to his homeland looking likely in the coming days, it is not immediately apparent to supporters who Martin, under mounting pressure despite leading his side through to the Champions League play-offs and to within touch of a multi-million pound pay day, can deploy at left back to nullify the threat posed by Forbs.
Hayen took a gamble playing the Sintra-born forward on Tuesday night and was rewarded for his bravery. He is, then, likely to take a chance on the youngster again in both legs of the play-off. Rangers will need to be ready or they will fail to progress to the league phase for the first time in their history.
'It worked out well,' said the Club Brugge manager. 'Ultimately, it was the right decision. He is not fully fit yet and ideally we would only use him for 45 minutes or so. But we saw his qualities and he was able to make a difference.'