Rangers let any lingering life like hope of Europa League development slip by way of their fingers as they had been held to a 1-1 draw by Braga, regardless of their Portuguese guests enjoying greater than half an hour with 10 males.
Worse nonetheless, Rangers had been a aim forward on the time of Braga star man Rodrigo Zalazar’s dismissal on the hour mark, however as an alternative of seeing out their lead capitulated to permit a poor equaliser from Gabri Martinez, and had been left to carry on to a degree which does nothing to assist their already distant goals of a last-16 place.
Danny Röhl’s aspect sit fourth backside of the group section desk regardless of choosing up their first level of the season, needing a minor miracle to mount a five-point hole even to the play-off spots with three video games remaining and 9 groups to overhaul.
“It feels like we lost the game because it was in our hands,” captain James Tavernier advised TNT Sports activities.
“Within the ultimate third we have now to be extra affected person and work it higher as an alternative of simply taking pictures when it is probably not on. It is a lapse in focus for his or her aim.
“It’s a missed opportunity for us. We have to be more clinical in both boxes, but I believe [we’re going in the right direction]. Boys are buying into it. We have to build on this and learn from it.”
Up till Zalazar’s purple, Rangers had been the higher staff at Ibrox and deservedly held a half-time lead courtesy of Tavernier’s penalty following a handball awarded by a VAR evaluation.
That strike took the captain stage with Gers legend Ally McCoist on 21 European targets – and at that time, every little thing appeared rosy.
It will not final. Regardless of Zalazar’s purple card, led to by one other VAR evaluation which noticed he had moved his head in the direction of Nicolas Raskin throughout a confrontation, Braga equalised simply eight minutes later when Nasser Djiga misjudged a cross and supplied the right help for Martinez to bundle residence on the again publish.
Rangers’ lack of urgency to revive their benefit was all of the extra puzzling with their additional man, and have become irrelevant when Mohamed Diomande was harshly proven a second yellow in added time for an inadvertent elbow.
Evaluation: Throughout bar the shouting for Rangers
Sky Sports activities’ Adam Binnie at Ibrox:
“That’s Rangers now probably out of the Europa League. They’d need to win their final three matches against Ferencvaros, Ludogorets and Porto to even stand a chance.
“Even then, a measly factors tally of 10 is unlikely to safe development to the play-off spherical. That wasn’t sufficient for Braga or Elfsborg to advance from this competitors final 12 months, whereas Dinamo Zagreb had been knocked out of the Champions League on 11 factors.
“Fives games, zero wins, one point, two goals. Grim for a side who made the quarter-finals just last season.”
Röhl insists at ‘progress’ regardless of draw
Rangers head coach Danny Röhl on TNT Sports activities:
“Yes, of course, 100 per cent [it’s progress]. For 60 minutes I saw a team who were really competitive against a team who have nine points from four games.
“We had been the higher staff, we created extra probabilities, we had a variety of ball-winning conditions. In fact, we’re disenchanted now however it was an enormous step forwards in our progress.
“It was one key moment, a throw-in, we won’t look for excuses but in the second half with the wind it was always difficult. There’s no question mark for me today about our progress, we’ve come from 3-0 and 2-0 [defeats] and today played a good game for 60-65 minutes.”
