Rangers 6-0 Kilmarnock: James Tavernier opens floodgates to raise pressure on Aberdeen

Rangers moved four points off second-placed Aberdeen with a game in hand as they finally found their shooting boots with a resounding 6-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox.

It took Rangers 37 minutes to manage a shot on target after being frustrated by their visitors for the majority of the first half, but once James Tavernier's rising effort put them ahead they never looked back.

The floodgates opened after half-time as Philippe Clement's men, who had previously only scored 18 goals all season, added another five in 24 second-half minutes to secure their biggest Scottish Premiership win since beating Hamilton 8-0 in November 2020.

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Danilo doubled their advantage by prodding Ianis Hagi's low cross past Robby McCrorie, before Hamza Igamane lashed in a third two minutes later with a powerful 20-yard finish.

The goals kept flowing as Vaclav Cerny made it four following a dancing run from Nicolas Raskin into the Kilmarnock box before Cyriel Dessers, who had come on only moments earlier, bundled home Jefte's ball through the six-yard box.

Dessers doubled his tally 13 minutes from time with a simple finish on Tavernier's delivery from wide, as Kilmarnock were punished for a second-half collapse having failed to lay a glove on their hosts all game.

Clement: This kind of result has been coming

Rangers manager Philippe Clement speaking to Sky Sports:

"That's what I wanted to see. We've been working hard to get that, to get the right running lines and movements with a lot of new players.

"In the last couple of weeks you've seen we create these chances, and today we finished them off better.

"There is perception from outside, we scored four goals in Europe against Nice too. We scored only one in the league in the last two games, but we had really good chances.

"That's football. If you finish it off, everything is brilliant - like it is today."

McInnes: It's a hugely disappointing night

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes speaking to Sky Sports:

"It's a hugely disappointing night. We were okay in the first half, in terms of competing. We come here without Finlay, who's been doing so well, and Joe Wright went off.

"We never really coped after that, we lost a poor goal where from a throw we've allowed a cross into the box. You're then praying that Tavernier's offside, but my gut feeling was he'd timed it well.

"We'd defended well up until that point, and at half-time, we made the decision to go 4-4-2 to try to go more on the front foot. But it became obvious we couldn't cope.

"Their movement was really good at the top of the pitch, Hagi and Igamane's movement was good. You're trying to stop the bleeding as a manager, trying to go as stiff as we can.

"It was far too simple and nowhere near good enough for a Kilmarnock team who have set standards over the last couple of years."

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