Rangers roared into the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals with a 6-0 win over Dunfermline at Ibrox tonight. Veteran Kenny Miller opened the scoring in the fifth minute of a whirlwind start before defender Bruno Alves and striker Alfredo Morelos both scored their first goals for Rangers and there was only 26 minutes gone when defender James Tavernier added a fourth. The home side relaxed for a spell but Portuguese attacker Daniel Candeias fired in a free-kick in the 56th minute to record his first goal for the Govan club and Morelos made it six from close range to pile on the misery for the Championship side. It was an impressive night's work by Pedro Caixinha's side which showed four changes - goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, Tavernier, midfielder Jordan Rossiter and Morelos coming in - and which was altered further when captain Lee Wallace was replaced by Lee Hodson before kick-off.
For the first goal Morelos and Miller did the spadework down the right before the Colombian's cut-back found Graham Dorrans and when his drive was parried by Sean Murdoch the home side's' stand-in captain calmly side-stepped the Pars keeper and fired high into the net from 10 yards. Miller had the ball the net again two minutes later from a Hodson cross only to be ruled offside but the second goal was not long in arriving, Portugal international Alves stepping up to curl a free-kick from 25 yards past the flailing Murdoch to the roars of the Rangers supporters. Tavernier then fired inches wide from just outside the box before an interruption to Rangers' dominance in the 19th minute when a 25-yard free-kick from Declan McManus beat Alnwick and came crashing off the bar to be escorted to safety by the Gers defence. It was Miller who set up the next two goals, his well-timed pass to Morelos in the 24th minute allowing him to slam the ball past Murdoch - the forward was booked by referee Don Robertson for running into the crowd to celebrate - and another clever ball to Tavernier being hammered in from 12 yards by the galloping full-back. Dunfermline boss Allan Johnston brought on burly defender Jean Yves Mvoto for attacker David Hopkirk in an attempt to steady the ship and they made it to the interval with no further troubles.
However, the second-half saw Rangers fired up again and when Candeias took over free-kick duties from Alves who had just been replaced by Danny Wilson, he gave Murdoch no chance from 25 yards. In the 76th minute Morelos pounced to knock in his second after Murdoch had parried a drive by Tavernier and only a string of saves by the over-worked keeper and some desperate defending prevented further embarrassment for the visitors.
Rangers roared into the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals with a 6-0 win over Dunfermline at Ibrox tonight. Veteran Kenny Miller opened the scoring in the fifth minute of a whirlwind start before defender Bruno Alves and striker Alfredo Morelos both scored their first goals for Rangers and there was only 26 minutes gone when defender James Tavernier added a fourth. The home side relaxed for a spell but Portuguese attacker Daniel Candeias fired in a free-kick in the 56th minute to record his first goal for the Govan club and Morelos made it six from close range to pile on the misery for the Championship side. It was an impressive night's work by Pedro Caixinha's side which showed four changes - goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, Tavernier, midfielder Jordan Rossiter and Morelos coming in - and which was altered further when captain Lee Wallace was replaced by Lee Hodson before kick-off.