RANGERS manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was encouraged by the marks of improvement in his side’s performance against Napoli last night.
The Serie A giants ran out 3-0 winners at Ibrox after storming away from the Ibrox club in the second-half.
James Sands was sent off for the Premiership outfit for a second-booking as he brought down Giovanni Simeone inside the area.
Allan McGregor pulled off some stunning penalty save heroics to keep the score at 0-0 after some moments of madness with a spot-kick retake and a disallowed goal.
However, the Italian’s made the extra-man count in the end, as they cruised to the top of their Champions League group with victory.
That makes it three defeats on the spin for the Light Blues, but van Bronckhorst insists his side will pick themselves up.
He said: "The performance was really good. The result wasn't but I don't think we deserved a 3-0 loss.
"If you see how the game went and how my players reacted after last week, we were well in the game.
"We had some big chances but in the end, the 3-0 result didn't reflect the game we had.
"When you have ten men and you are 1-0 down, you need to take some risks and leaves space.
"But overall we are disappointed as with 11 v 11, we gave Napoli a tough time and were well in it.
VAR was heavily involved throughout with the penalty calls and red card.
The Dutchman could have no complaints. He added: "The decision to give the penalty? With VAR everything is checked.
"It meant we had three penalties against us but we have to accept that.
"I haven’t seen the red card back but they check it all and we have to rely on VAR.
"It was a moment we didn't react to well. We had to step in and make sure we didn't give a chance away but it cost us a penalty and a red card.”
