Rangers' Europa League hopes all but ended with a whimper by 10-man Braga
Rangers let any lingering realistic hope of Europa League progression slip through their fingers as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Braga, despite their Portuguese visitors playing more than half an hour with 10 men.Worse still, Rangers were a goal ahead at the time of Braga star man Rodrigo Zalazar's dismissal on the hour mark, but instead of seeing out their lead capitulated to allow a poor equaliser from Gabri Martinez, and were left to hold on to a point which does nothing to aid their already distant dreams of a last-16 place.
Danny Röhl's side sit fourth bottom of the group phase table despite picking up their first point of the season, needing a minor miracle to mount a five-point gap even to the play-off spots with three games remaining and nine teams to overtake.
"It feels like we lost the game because it was in our hands," captain James Tavernier told TNT Sports."In the final third we have to be more patient and work it better instead of just shooting when it's not really on. It's a lapse in concentration for their goal.
"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 until Zalazar's red, Rangers had been the better team at Ibrox and deservedly held a half-time lead courtesy of Tavernier's penalty following a handball awarded by a VAR review.
That strike took the captain level with Gers legend Ally McCoist on 21 European goals - and at that point, everything looked rosy.It would not last. Despite Zalazar's red card, brought about by another VAR review which spotted he had moved his head towards Nicolas Raskin during a confrontation, Braga equalised just eight minutes later when Nasser Djiga misjudged a cross and provided the perfect assist for Martinez to bundle home at the back post.Rangers' lack of urgency to restore their advantage was all the more puzzling with their extra man, and became irrelevant when Mohamed Diomande was harshly shown a second yellow in added time for an inadvertent elbow.Analysis: All over bar the shouting for RangersSky Sports' 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 points tally of 10 is unlikely to secure progression to the play-off round. That wasn't enough for Braga or Elfsborg to advance from this competition last year, while Dinamo Zagreb were knocked out of the Champions League on 11 points."Fives games, zero wins, one point, two goals. Grim for a side who made the quarter-finals just last season."Röhl insists at 'progress' despite drawRangers head coach Danny Röhl on TNT Sports:"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 were the better team, we created more chances, we had a lot of ball-winning situations. Of course, we're disappointed now but it was a huge 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."What's coming up for Rangers?
