As has become customary in Glasgow on a Champions League night, the world-famous anthem is greeted with defending cheers.
However, within a matter of minutes, all those in Govan and Glasgow’s surrounding areas could hear was a cacophony of boos.
The night could hardly have started any worse for Russell Martin’s side, conceding after three minutes and then again from a corner four minutes later, before Club Brugge added a third on the 20 minute mark, this the fastest Rangers have ever found themselves 3-0 down in a home European tie in their 69 years of continental history.
At that stage, the Belgian side appeared set to completely put the tie to bed, although it didn’t entirely turn out that way.
Straight after the break, teenaged debutant Jayden Meghoma’s low cross was tapped home by Danilo before, with 12 minutes to play, Djeidi Gassama thought he’d reduced the arrears further, but his goal was disallowed because referee François Letexier deemed that goalkeeper Simon Mignolet had two hands on the ball; a controversial VAR decision.
Thus, 1-3 it finished at Ibrox, leaving Rangers with a mountain to climb at Jan Breydelstadion next Wednesday, and a couple of Martin’s summer recruits in particular did not impress.
Nasser Djiga's calamitous night
Since joining on loan from Wolves this summer, Nasser Djiga has now started all eight matches this season, forming a centre-back partnership with John Souttar.
The Burkina Faso international arrived in Glasgow with plenty of Champions League experience, starting all ten of Crvena zvezda’s qualifiers and league phase fixtures last season, although you wouldn’t have known it three minutes in to this one.
Brugge’s opener, scored by Romeo Vermant, came about in bizarre circumstances.
Danilo had a shot blocked at one end, before Christos Tzolis’ hopeful ball forward was inexplicably just left by Djiga, running in the complete opposite direction, allowing Vermant to delicately lob the ball over a bemused and confused Jack Butland.
Graeme McGarry of the Herald labelled this the “worst defending I’ve ever seen” while, speaking on Sky Sports News, former Rangers striker Kris Boyd described this as “calamitous”, adding “Rangers just come up with new ways to concede goals…. Champions League football… forget it”.
This is such a concern because, as already alluded to, Martin appeared to have his centre-back partnership in Djiga and Souttar set in stone, albeit, after the former was sent off against Dundee ten days ago, this was not his first costly error.
Nevertheless, he is not one of Martin’s summer recruits coming under the most scrutiny following this damaging defeat.
Rangers' new signing could be dropped
James Tavernier has been a stalwart since joining Rangers a decade ago, making 521 appearances for the club, only ten men can boast more, among the first names on the team sheet throughout this period – until now that is.
The club captain was left on the bench for the first leg against Viktoria Plzeň in the previous round, with the same true again on Tuesday, with Max Aarons starting at right-back instead, very much a permanent fixture in Martin’s team, but could that be about to change?
Well, the 25-year-old did not impress against Brugge, as the table below documents.
Errors leading to shot
1
1st
Defensive actions
3
16th
Clearances
2
12th
Tackles
1
14th
Dribbles past
1
1st
Possession lost
7
11th
Duels contested
11
2nd
Duels won
4
10th
Fouls
2
1st
Touches
68
5th
Sofascore rating
6.7
20th
As the table highlights, only four players, namely the aforementioned Souttar and Djiga, as well as Brugge duo Brandon Mechele and Jorne Spileers, accumulated more touches than Aarons, despite the fact he was hooked with 20 minutes remaining, but he did little good with all this time spent in possession.
The full-back was dribbled past once, this when Tzolis came close to adding a fourth in first-half stoppage time, losing possession on seven occasions, while also winning just four of his 11 ground duels, which pretty much sums up his and Rangers’ night.
Journalist Scott Bradley asserted that Aarons “looks like he hasn’t kicked a ball before”, adding that he remains “absolutely baffled” as to why the “best right-back in the league”, namely Tavernier, is once again left watching from the dugout by under-fire Martin.
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All in all, a disastrous night for Rangers, leaving their Champions League dreams hanging by a thread, requiring a miracle when they visit West Flanders next mid-week.
Before then, already four points adrift of Premiership leaders Hearts and Celtic after just two fixtures, Martin can ill-afford yet more dropped points at St Mirren on Sunday, so it would be no surprise if captain Tavernier is restored to the team in Paisley.