Pundit Michael Stewart was left blown away as he learned of Rangers captain James Tavernier’s supreme penalty-scoring record at the club.
On a night where the Ibrox club relinquished their league title to rivals Celtic, Rangers won 4-1 in essentially a warm-up game for their mammoth Europa League final clash on Wednesday.
Will Rangers win the Europa League?
Yes!
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Tavernier stepped up to convert from 12 yards in the 29th minute as he was fouled in the area with the Englishman now posting 18 goals this season.
Six of those strikes have come from the spot while he has missed just one of his seven penalties this term and when told by BBC Sportscene host Steven Thompson told Stewart that it was the 42nd penalty he had scored for the Gers he sang the right-back’s praises.
(35:37) “It’s his 42nd penalty converted for Rangers. That is incredible,” said Thomspon on BBC Scotland Sportscene (Wednesday, May 11th).
Stewart agreed and said:
“It is pretty incredible, yes, it is.
“He made no mistake with the penalty to put it away in the corner of the net.”
TIF Thoughts on Tavernier and Rangers…
Tavernier joined Rangers from Wigan Athletic in 2015 and has gone on to become of the club’s most influential captains in their modern history.
Steven Gerrard, who handed the uncapped Englishman the armband in 2018, deemed him “unstoppable” in the past and his goalscoring prowess shows no signs of slowing down.
He currently leads the Europa League scoring charts with seven goals with all of them coming in the knockout stages.
He scored two pivotal goals as the Light Blues edged Braga in the quarter-finals and after netting in the last-four triumph over RB Leipzig he will now be hoping to get his hands of the trophy.