The March international break provided Rangers duo Nico Raskin and Hamza Igamane to continue their excellent progress with a well-earned international debut.
Nico Raskin came off the bench late as Belgium were beaten 3-1 by Ukraine on Thursday night.
Interestingly, with Youri Tielemans now suspended for the second leg of that UEFA Nations League play-off, a Rangers midfielder ‘in the form of his life’ could step in for the Aston Villa playmaker and earn a maiden Red Devils start tomorrow.
Hamza Igamane ‘dazzled’ on the training pitch after linking up with the Morocco squad for the first time, meanwhile. His eventual debut was not quite so thrilling. But, days after the Rangers striker ended his two-month goal drought at Celtic Park no less, he ticked one major ambition off his bucket list as he stepped onto the turf against Niger in a World Cup qualifier.
In stark contrast, Nedim Bajrami may have had different feelings about the March break. A moment of respite, perhaps, amid a difficult spell at club level.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Nedim Bajrami’s struggles continue as Rangers star flops in Albania defeat
After a bright start to life at Rangers, the £3.4 million deadline day signing from Sassuolo has entered a bit of a slump.
Bajrami was singled out after the Scottish Cup defeat by Queen’s Park for all the wrong reasons in early February. He has not started a single Rangers game since, either in the Premiership or the Europa League. Barry Ferguson left Bajrami on the bench for the entirety of that 3-2 triumph over Old Firm rivals Celtic.
So, as Albania headed to Wembley to become the first opponents of England’s Thomas Tuchel era, the Zurich-born playmaker may just have been relieved to get a change of scenery.
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Though, as he took his underwhelming club form onto the international stage, the Rangers supporters are now no longer the only ones expressing concerns over a man who, in happier times, wrote his name into the history books with that 21-second goal against Italy during last summer’s European Championships.
Albania boss Sylvinho – once of Arsenal, Barcelona and Manchester City – did not mention Bajrami directly at full-time. He did, however, make the point of praising the man who took his place with 62 minutes on the clock.
The introduction of Everton attacker Armando Broja in Bajrami’s place, Slyvinho felt, led to Albania’s best spell of the match.
“I am very happy and proud of all the players who entered the field. If you are not organised on the pitch, you can end badly,” Sylvinho said. “In the second half, we played better. [15 minutes after the interval and once Bajrami went off] we were in the game.
“Broja did a good job. We could have come close to equalising, but they scored the second goal and everything ended.”
Bajrami ‘very poor’ as Thomas Tuchel’s England get off to winning start
Bajrami and Broja are, of course, two very different sort of attackers. While the former is more of a playmaker – all cute passes and swivelling hips – the latter is quicker, more direct, and far more effective running in behind.
The irony is, of course, that Bajrami could have provided the ammunition Broja needed if the two had started together.
“Unfortunately, I believe Sylvinho made some wrong choices with the starting XI,” writes the Albanian Football Scout on X. “Bajrami also had a very poor game.
“The midfield is non-existent [in the first-half]. Nedim Bajrami is far too slow in all aspects for this game. No control whatsoever in midfield. Nedim Bajrami is of no use to us in this form.”
Such criticism will feel very familiar to the Rangers fans who have watched Bajrami impress in Europe but struggle to exert the same influence in the physical, fast-paced Scottish game.