Gift Orban was at his goalscoring best once again as netted a hat-trick in Gent’s 5-0 bashing of Pogon Szczecin in the first leg of the third round in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers on Wednesday night while Cyriel Dessers scored his first goal for Rangers in a 2-1 win over Servette in the first leg of the third round in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.
Orban had already scored a goal in Gent’s 5-1 first leg demolition of Zilina in the second round of the qualifiers and was in top form on Wednesday as he scored the Buffalo’s first two goals in the 13th and 35th minute.
His strike partner Hugo Cuypers then added his brace in the 40th minute and added time to hand Gent a 4-0 lead going into the break. Orban completed his hat-trick in the 64th minute and was taken off in the 89th minute for Cameroon defender Brian Agbor. Orban’s hat-trick mirrors his performance in the Europa Conference League last season where he scored a hat-trick against Istanbul Basaksehir in the the Round of 16, the fastest hat-trick in the history of UEFA club competitions.
???????????????????????????????? ????????????????????
Orban being Orban ???? #UECL #GntPog pic.twitter.com/Mf3ElVitDe
— KAA Gent (@KAAGent) August 9, 2023
Gent now have a healthy lead to take to the second leg in Poland next Thursday.
Dessers meanwhile scored his first goal for Rangers in their victory over Swiss side Servette. James Tavernier gave the Scottish giants the lead in the sixth minute from the penalty spot before Dessers doubled it nine minutes later with a cool finish from a Borna Barisic cross.
Servette pulled one back just before the half time break through Ivory Coast forward Chris Bedia but were reduced to 10 men after David Douline was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence on the hour mark.
Dessers said after the game it was an amazing feeling to score in front of the Rangers supporters at Ibrox, especially after the team’s 1-0 loss at Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership opener over the weekend.
???? pic.twitter.com/W7qAvc5vnG
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) August 9, 2023
“That moment was unbelievable. Of course, you dream of scoring at Ibrox in front of this crowd, and to feel the emotion it’s amazing and it is an amazing feeling,” Dessers told the club website.
“I am happy that it was an important goal that we got the win out of.
“Saturday was a tough loss, but that didn’t make us a bad team suddenly. We know what our qualities are and we wanted to show it in front of our own crowd and get a good start and get the energy and get the energy in the stadium as well.”
Dessers is a new signing for Rangers having joined from Cremonese who suffered relegation from the Italian Serie A last season.
