Rangers had a night to remember at Ibrox on Thursday, beating Rapid Vienna 3-1, and fans were blown away by the assist from Daniel Candeias in the dying moments of the game.
As you can see in the video posted by BT Sport below, Candeias clears the ball from the edge of his area almost to the halfway line, where a Vienna player controls it.
Candeias hasn’t given up though and charges to the ball, wins it from the defender and plays a beautiful back-heel to Alfredo Morelos who finishes beautifully round the keeper.
It was the perfect end to a perfect night for Steven Gerrard and his men.
Rangers seal their win at the death!
An outrageous assist from Daniel Candeias ??
Steven Gerrard absolutely LOVES IT! ???
European football at Ibrox is well and truly back! pic.twitter.com/hNABtTcBkD
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 4, 2018
Rangers fans absolutely loved it and flocked onto Twitter to regale Candeias for his outrageous effort and skill.
Here are the best reactions from Rangers supporters:
Brilliant from candeias. Guys some player. https://t.co/VAQKX7neVN
— gary (@Gazzaboyd) October 5, 2018
What an atmosphere last night – great to be back to top flight European football ??
And that backheel from Candeias ? https://t.co/80gjNJQ5Cc
— Darren Cairns (@darren_cairns) October 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/McLean_1872x/status/1048100338018996224
https://twitter.com/boag22/status/1048099353930477568
Still not over Candeias making a clearance in last minute, pressing his own clearance, winning it back and having the audacity for a cheeky back heel never mind executing it for a suberp assist ?
— John (@JohnMcIntosh19) October 5, 2018
The absolute work rate from Candeias that close to the end of the match ? https://t.co/WuMvemrDjL
— you-dee-aye (@the_shota) October 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/markyboy1903/status/1048097186985201664
https://twitter.com/WindsorHugo/status/1048081018991890432
https://twitter.com/glennbutler1/status/1048066697444433921
OPINION
If anything typifies the Rangers spirit at the moment it’s this piece of play from Candeias. It should be shown to every single professional football player as an inspiration to what hard work and determination can achieve. Rangers had their backs against the wall in the dying moments of the game and most players would have been content to hoof the ball away and wait for it to come back into the box from the last defender. But not Candeias. He took off after the ball and charged the Rapid Vienna player down. He had slightly mis-controlled the ball but had no idea Candeias was on him. The outrageous back-heel to put Morelos through on goal was just brilliant and meant the crowd, already excited from the game, went home buzzing. Just brilliant. Now it’s back to the Premiership and it’s crucial that the players can motivate themselves again after a disastrous result against Livingston last week. They need to prove they’re not just big-game players or the league title will be away.