Captain James Tavernier has claimed Rangers lacked "hunger and fight" as they crashed out of the Champions League with a whimper following defeat to Ajax.
Steven Berghuis, Mohammed Kudus and late sub Francisco Conceicao found the net for the Dutch champions to compound a miserable return to Europe's elite competition for the Ibrox side, as they finished rock bottom of Group A without securing a point. Indeed, it's the worst-ever campaign. Tavernier had netted from the penalty spot but it only served to narrowly improve the goal difference, and couldn't stop Rangers putting conjuring the most horrific Champions League group stage campaign.
The captain issued an apology to the Ibrox fans who vented towards the players from the stands as Ajax controlled the majority of the game, despite being unable to reach the knockout round. Tavernier didn't hold back in his full time debrief, telling BT Sport: "We'll learn from this. We've not done ourselves justice (in the Champions League) and we have not given the fans the minimum that they wanted.
"We will own up to that and can only apologise. It's a learning curve and we need to improve, especially in this competition."
When pushed on if he felt Rangers players owed the fans an apology, he continued: "We obviously want to do better. In the first half I believe we could have fought a bit more, we lacked a bit of hunger in the first half.
"In the second half we were better, but you cant wait for 45 minutes to get going. We don't want to get beat, we're a club known for winning trophies and winning games.
"We did it last season getting to the Europa final last season, but didn't this season. We will learn from it." Tavernier attempted to explain his comments further as he walked back the question marks, saying: "I probably wouldn't say hunger and fight, but they are a quality side."
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