Nigeria trio of Joe Aribo, Leon Balogun and Calvin Bassey have put behind them their Europa league disappoinment after they clinch the Scottish League Cup title following Rangers 2-0 extra time victory over Hearts in the Scottish Cup final at the Hampden Park.
The Light Blues were shattered by their 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat in the Europa League final by Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night and they went into extra-time again thanks to Craig Gordon’s save with his foot from Joe Aribo near the end of normal time.
Rangers had to dig deep to find the win as they claim the trophy back to back for the first time since 2009.
Giovanni Van Bronckhorst won the cup playing with Rangers in 2000 and captured his first trophy as Ibrox manager having taken over from Steven Gerrard last November and it was well deserved. There had been questions beforehand about Rangers’ response to their European disappointment. Playing 120 gruelling minutes in the heat of Seville had appeared to take its toll on some of the Rangers players, Borna Barisic was injured, and Van Bronckhorst freshened up the side with five changes.
On-loan Manchester United winger Amad Diallo was handed a surprise start, goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin continued his run of playing in every Scottish Cup tie this season, while Steven Davis, Scott Arfield and Leon Balogun also returned.
Rangers scored twice in the space of five minutes after Ryan Jack scored the opener in the 94th minutes of extra time while Scott Wright sealed the Victory three minutes later scoring in the 97th minutes.
The duo of Calvin Bassey and Leon Balogun featured throughout the duration of the game while Joe Aribo was replaced in the 105th minutes by Zambian Fashion Sinkala.
