From potential history makers to pitiful no-hopers.
Not every team can make such a mystifying, retrograde transition in such a short space of time. But Rangers managed it last night when they hit rock bottom in a one-horse outpost on the outskirts of Brussels, two months after storming all the way to the shoulder of immortality in Seville like some force of football nature.
If they thought they could rest on their laurels on the back of last season’s rampaging run across the continent in the Europa League, then now they know different. They face the minnows of Union Saint-Gilloise back at Ibrox next week in serious danger of disgracing themselves, not to mention costing their club a winning ticket for the Euro millions.
These Union players, let’s not forget, were a side that had never played a Euro tie before. Rangers, on the other hand, just looked like one. But it was the Belgians who took a 2-0 lead into the second leg largely because they came up against a Rangers side – and manager for that matter – who forgot how they are supposed to function in a quite mind-boggling manner.
Of course, there is time to repair the damage. But don’t take that for granted either after the lesson from history dished out this time last summer by Malmo. Once again, there is a danger of this team being swept out of the Champions League along with all the rest of the Euro trash which is tossed to one side to clear the stage for the serious business to begin.
And let’s be in no doubt either. Rangers and Giovanni van Bronckhorst got exactly what they deserved last night.
If truth be told, van Bronckhorst adopted a back foot approach from the very start of this catastrophic first leg. When it started to go wrong he was then spooked into changing his formation too early. Then guilty of hesitating for an eternity as this performance nose dived from bad to worse.
Just like in so many of these ties last season John Lundstram started in midfield, was quickly redeployed as a makeshift centre-half when van Bronckhorst began to fear the worst only to end the game back in his usual position. But, by then, Rangers were already a lost cause.
While it started out as a job for the tried and trusted in the boiler room, van Bronckhorst did find starting places for three new recruits in attack with Rabbi Matondo replacing Ryan Kent’s trickery and pace out wide along with Malik Tillman and Antonio Colak. Tillman started brightly enough. Most of them did in fact. But the US international faded fast until he was contributing nothing much at all. Which is precisely what Matondo was offering on the other wing on a night when this big rebuild was shaken to its foundations.
In goal, no place for Allan McGregor – the veteran now looking very much like playing second fiddle to Jon McLaughlin. For the time being at least. That McLaughlin saved his side from the disastrous concession of a third goal late on may not spare him from the post-mortem. As his slippery-fingered role in Union’s opening goal was the kind of mistake which might make his manager think twice about allowing McGregor out to grass for the rest of the campaign.
What no one could be sure of, given the nature of Union’s overnight success story in the Belgian top flight, was how busy the new No.1 was likely to be. And after 10 minutes it began to look like he could take the night off too so absolute was the extent of Rangers’ early dominance.
But then, in the blink of an eye, this contest was turned on its head. It was almost as if the Belgians had been lulling Rangers into a false sense of security in the opening exchanges. Or perhaps the early stage fright of a first European tie in 50 years had simply worn off. Either way, from the moment they flicked that switch – and almost inexplicably – Rangers were in all manner of bother.
Van Bronckhorst reacted to this huge momentum shift by switching Lundstram’s position. But, if anything, this created more space in midfield for Union’s players. Soon dangerman Dante Vanzeir was stabbing the best chance of the half wide as Rangers began to buckle.
And then, 26 minutes in, Ryan Jack and Borna Barisic took it in turns to let their indecision be final inside their own box and as they froze – and James Sands was caught ball-watching – skipper Teddy Teuma lashed a shot home from 16 yards which slipped through McLaughlin’s gloves like a wet bar of soap.
It was a horrific concession in every conceivable way and it summed up a first half which had somehow spiralled out of Rangers’ control.
The increasingly discombobulated Sands was booked before the break and was fortunate not to pick up a second yellow after the break when he lost control of the ball and lunged into another clumsy challenge.
Just before the hour, McLaughlin’s goal was under threat again when a shot fizzed around the post. But still van Bronckhorst delayed even though there were no shortage of options around him. Eventually, 66 minutes in, Barisic was hooked for Ridvan Yilmaz and Jack made way for Ben Davies.
Lundstram moved back into midfield but Rangers were already in a dire state. The second goal came from the spot when Vanzeir cashed in on a dodgy VAR decision by sending McLaughlin the wrong way.
But it’s Rangers who are now losing direction. They have 90 second-leg minutes to prove they have their wits about them.
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