By Robert McElroy
Club Brugge 6 (Seys 2 [42, 44], Tresoldi 5, Vanaken 32, Stankovic 45, Tzolis 50) Rangers 0
Aggregate: 9-1
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Attendance 26,252
There will be no return to the UEFA Champions League for Rangers this season, following a catastrophic 0-6 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday evening – a shockingly inept defensive performance leading to a humiliating loss that not even the early red-carding of Max Aarons can explain.
Russell Martin made two changes from the First Leg at Ibrox with Lyall Cameron and Thelo Aasgaard coming in for Mohamed Diomande and Nico Raskin.
Rangers – effectively wearing all-white – could not have made a worse start, conceding the opening goal as early as the fifth minute when Nicolo Tresoldi headed home a Joaquin Seys cross.
It was once again a poor, poor goal to concede – an excellent header, but yet another goal had been conceded from a free header.
Things went from bad to worse for the Ibrox men three minutes later when Max Aarons received a straight red card for hauling down Cristos Tzolis as he streaked through on goal.
The tie was effectively over – and a long, long night lay ahead for a Rangers side who appeared incapable of handling the pace of the Brugge wide men.
James Tavernier substituted for Oliver Antman in the twelfth minute in what would ultimately prove to be a vain attempt to stem the tide of Belgian attacks.
Tzolis was a constant threat – breaking through on nineteen minutes he was thwarted by Jack Butland diving at his feet.
Brugge were pouring forward constantly, looking capable of scoring with virtually every attack.
Tzolis left the crossbar shuddering with a 25-yard drive three minutes later with Carlos Forbs denied from Butland as he seized on the loose ball.
A thundering 25-yard drive from Aleksander Stankovic just after the half-hour mark produced a superb one-handed save from the ‘Gers ‘keeper – but from the resultant Tzolis corner Hans Vanaken rose unchallenged to head home.
The pressure was non-stop – four minutes later a Vanaken volley struck the crossbar.
A third goal appeared almost inevitable – and it duly arrived in the 42nd minute when Joaquin Seys netted from a Tzolis opening.
The roof was falling in on the visitors – two minutes later Seys made it 4-0 with a volley from a Raphael Onyedika cross.
Unbelievable before the half-time whistle sounded it was 5-0 when Stankovic had another free header find the net from a Vanaken cross.
A humiliating first-half finally ended for Rangers – and one significant statistic was that almost all of the Brugge goals had come from attacks down the right.
Desperate times require desperate measures – and Russell Martin clearly recognised this – making three substitutions at the interval with Mohamed Diomande, Nico Raskin and Findlay Curtis coming on for Thelo Aasgaard, Joe Rothwell and Djeidi Gassama, opting for a 5-4-0 formation in an attempt to at least assure no more goals were conceded.
That hope lasted all of five minutes as Tzolis fastened on to a clever back-heel from Tresoldi to net with ease.
Just before the hour mark, Connor Barron substituted for Danilo. meaning Rangers now had no attackers left in their ranks.
Not surprisingly, the intensity of the Brugge attacks lessened somewhat as the second-half wore on – although Stankovic did power in a 70th minute drive that was beaten out by Butland.
Perhaps the final insult from a Ibrox point of view came on 84 minutes when Butland was yellow-carded by German Referee Felix Zwayer– for time-wasting…!
Mercifully the referee blew the final whistle right on the ninety-minute mark and a black night for Rangers was ended.
Club Brugge: Mignolet; Sabbe (Audoor 72), Spileers, Mechele. Seys (Siquet 58); Carlos Forbs (Diakhon 46), Stankovic, Vanaken, Onyedika, Tzolis (Nilsson 58); Tresoldi (Furo 68)
Unused Subs: Romero, Vetlesen, Jackers, Reis, Sandra, Meijer, Skoras
Rangers: Butland; Aarons, Souttar, Djiga, Meghoma; Antman (Tavernier 12), Cameron, Rothwell (Raskin 46), Aasgaard (Diomande 46), Gassama (Curtis 46); Danilo (Barron 59)
Unused Subs: Kelly, Wright, Dessers, Fernandez, Moore, Gentles, Hutton
Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)