“I AM a striker and I have always scored. It’s not like you forget after one game.”
Antonio Colak spoke and scored with confidence on Saturday. Having endured something of a difficult week following absent performances against Livingston and Union, the Croatian seized on a rare opportunity to break Saturday’s deadlock against Kilmarnock and open his Rangers account.
“I’m really happy and it was an amazing feeling to score at Ibrox,” he said after the game.
“It’s not always easy but of course, it’s the most important thing for a striker to start as early as possible in a season to score, this gives me a lot of confidence and an extra push for the upcoming games.”
The chance posed a rare opportunity for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side to attack into space, having been faced with a compact block during the first half.
Below, as Scott Wright makes a tackle to divert Jeriel Dorset’s pass into John Lundstram’s path the visitors have four men ahead of the ball, having attempted to build an attack.
Lundstram returns the ball to Wright who plays an important left-footed pass into the centre and beyond Dorset, which Malik Tillman does well to receive under pressure.
The American is unable to make clean connection due to a foul and when Lundstram realises the ball is behind him, he throws his arms up in search of the referee’s whistle.
It’s not clear whether the official plays an advantage or rejects Lundstram’s claims, but Liam Donnelly (No.22) invertedly plays the ball into the feet of Colak anyway, creating a two-vs-two.
When Donnelly initially releases the ball, Ash Taylor (No.5) is in line with the forward, meaning Joe Wright No.19 has to close the gap and block Colak’s route through the defence, but this opens up space for Tom Lawrence.
By playing centrally, Lawrence is in position to join the attack and takes just two touches to assist his teammate’s curved movement.
Colak’s first touch sets the ball perfectly for his second, a low, driven finish across the keeper.
StatsBomb had the chance at 0.17xG. Remember xG considers the positioning of opponents, the goalkeeper, pass that set up the shot and body part used to shoot. Based on all of these factors, the chance had a 17/100 chance of going in.
Goalkeeper Sam Walker’s positioning is near-optimal, Alan Power (No.4) is close by to apply pressure and Colak’s body is reaching around the shot.
StatsBomb recorded the Post-Shot xG (PSxG) at 0.83. PSxG uses information after the shot has been taken to recalculate the likelihood of a goal, such as the shot’s speed and trajectory. Effectively, it determines the quality of the finish and based on the 0.17 to 0.83 rise, shows just how good Colak’s finish was in this instance. He turned a decent chance into a finish that goes into the back of the net more than four out of five times.
“Sometimes as a striker, you don’t have many touches but when the ball comes, you have to score,” the forward added post-match.
He has built his career on finding the corners of the net. Saturday’s finish was a demonstration of the quality Colak can bring in his area of the pitch.
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