Rangers waiting to learn if French authorities will enforce Ryan Kent suspension
The winger was sent off during Thursday’s friendly against Lyon.
Rangers face a nervous wait to learn if French disciplinary chiefs will enforce Ryan Kent’s Veolia Trophy suspension.
The winger’s dismissal was the only negative from Thursday night’s impressive 2-0 win over Lyon.
The former Liverpool player was dismissed just before half-time as he reacted to being goaded by the French club’s Brazilian midfielder Marcelo with a petulant slap.
Now Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard is waiting to learn if the French Football Federation will pass the details of referee Karim Abed’s report onto their Hampden counterparts, forcing the Scottish Football Association to issue a two-game ban for violent conduct.
In that case, Kent would sit out Rangers’ opening Ladbrokes Premiership trip to Aberdeen and their first home game against St Mirren.
A Hampden source told the PA news agency: “There is no exact science to how these friendly red cards are dealt with.
“Some associations do report them, some don’t – but the SFA can only act once they have been contacted by the federation of the host country.”
Meanwhile, Ibrox skipper James Tavernier has praised the club’s youngsters after they withstood a second-half onslaught to guide the 10-man Gers to victory over Lyon.
Gerrard’s team finished with a back four comprising academy recruits Nathan Paterson, Ross McCrorie and Lewis Mayo plus their 20-year-old summer recruit from Leicester, Calvin Bassey.
Tavernier told RangersTV: “You want the boys to learn off us all and learn off the coaches and make a claim for themselves. It’s their career, they’ve got everything in their hands to be very good players, so I was delighted for them and the way they’ve conducted themselves during this game.
“Nathan and Calvin, Rossco, who’s been on loan and he’s got his experience, and I thought Mayo was actually terrific, he was solid at the back. Really happy with them.
“I thought it was a good test for the boys and the majority of the game we dealt with it really well.
“We got ourselves in front, scored two good goals and could have scored more.
“Every man who came on and started the game were terrific.
“The young boys did a job for the team and the gaffer was really pleased with the performance.”
Kent was dismissed six minutes before the break but Rangers stood strong with 10 men even as Lyon threw on former Celtic hitman Moussa Dembele and one-time Manchester United player Memphis Depay.
“It almost reminded me a bit of Ufa in how we had to defend with less people on the pitch,” added Tavernier.
“We’ve worked on our defensive organisation not just during pre-season but during last year too. During these big games we come across, the team is really tightly knit and we’re hard to score against.
“It was Jon McLaughlin’s first game and he did a terrific job in goal.”
