Giovanni Van Bronckhorst defends Leon Balogun over Motherwell red card

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has leapt to the defense of Super Eagles defender Leon Balogun over his red card during Saturday's clash with Motherwell.

Balogun was shown the red card after just 28 minutes in Rangers' Scottish Premiership match against Motherwell after a rash challenge on Motherwell's Dean Cornelius.

The Gers went on to win the match 3-1 away at Fir Park courtesy of goals from Liam Kelly (OG), Scott Wright, and James Tavernier (P) with Calvin Bassey replacing Balogun in the centre of defence.

However, Rangers manager Van Bronckhorst has refused to blame Balogun for getting sent off, stating that the Super Eagles defender's intention was to win the ball. 

Van Bronckhorst told Rangers' official website that the margins for making such tackles are slim and the referee simply chose to give a red card to Balogun in this instance.

According to Van Bronckhorst: "Leon wanted to win the tackle, but in these circumstances the margins are very little.

"So the ref decided to give the red card and we had to respect that, move on and make sure we had the focus on the minutes that we had to play after that sending off.

"Of course, we conceded the goal but I think we changed the game in the second half."

Rangers had taken an early lead through goalkeeper Liam Kelly's 14th-minute own goal but Motherwell found an equaliser through Ross Tierney just five minutes after Balogun was sent off. 

Van Bronckhorst brought on Calvin Bassey and later on Joe Aribo as the incumbent champions turned the game around in the second half with goals from Wright and Tavernier.

Rangers remain second on the log, six (6) points behind Celtic in the Championship Round of the Scottish Premiership. 

The Van Bronckhorst-led side are also through to the final of the Scottish Cup, courtesy of Calvin Bassey's 114th-minute effort against Celtic in the semifinals.