Glasgow Rangers summer signing, Sadiq Umar came off the bench to dazzle in his first game for The Gers, just few hours after he was cleared to play this season’s Europa League with the Scottish Premiership outfit.
Sadiq, who is on loan from AS Roma of Italy, came off The Gers’ bench to fit straight into the squad and even came close to scoring in his side’s 3-0 win.
Umar’s role helped Rangers maintain their solid start to life under former Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, by seeing off Wigan Athletic in Sunday’s friendly at Ibrox Stadium.
The Gers netted three times in the space of 10 second-half minutes to make it four wins and two draws since the legendary Liverpool midfielder took charge earlier this summer.
With focus on Thursday evening’s Europa League qualifier return leg against Osijek, which Rangers lead 1-0 after the opening 90 minutes, Gerrard fielded a side strong enough to keep the momentum going.
A slow start to proceedings saw Alfredo Morelos and Ross McCrorie come close without finding a way through – the latter firing just wide of the post following a knockdown from Connor Goldson.
James Vaughan then had a chance to give Wigan the breakthrough before the interval through a powerful header that drifted past the target.
Rangers also had a chance to take the lead from the final meaningful act of the opening 45 minutes, only for Christian Walton to keep out James Tavernier’s curled free kick.
After bringing on Nikola Katic at the break, the Scottish hosts stepped things up and found a way through with seven minutes of the second half played.
Following a near miss for Glenn Middleton, who fired over the bar from a promising position, Morelos was the first to react to Daniel Candeias’s cross.
Gerrard used this final summer friendly to his advantage by bringing on debutant Umar for his opening goal scorer, and it would prove to be a straightforward afternoon for the Gers from that point on.
Katic leapt highest to meet a corner and power home a second for his side, before an unfortunate deflection off Alex Bruce saw the home team add a third moments later.
Both teams continued to make a number of changes, and it was Wigan who came closest to scoring in the remaining half an hour.
Max Power had a header well kept out by substitute goalkeeper Wes Foderingham, while Will Grigg squandered an even better opportunity as he missed from the penalty spot late on.
