Rangers were beaten 4-3 on penalties as they were knocked out of the Conference League by Czech Republic side JablonecSNS

Rangers will not play in Europe for the first time in nine years

At a glance

  • Penrice and Curtis miss spot-kicks as Jablonec win shootout

  • Tchanturishvili had scored in second half to force extra time

  • Rangers out of Europe entirely

Charlotte Cohen
BBC Sport Scotland

Rangers will not play European football again this season after a wretched performance in a humbling Conference League play-off defeat on penalties against Czech Republic side Jablonec.

Derek McInnes' side actually led early in the shootout, only for Findlay Curtis and James Penrice to miss their final two penalties.

It leaves them without European football beyond August for the first time since the 2-1 aggregate defeat by Luxembourg's Progres Niederkorn in the Europa League first qualifying round in 2017.

And it ratchets up the pressure on McInnes after a hapless start to his reign at Ibrox, which included a Europa League exit against Jagiellonia Bialystok and a draw and defeat in their opening two Premiership games.

Performances so far under the former Hearts manager have not been impressive but this was about as bad as there has been.

Rangers led 1-0 from the first leg but the opening half in Czech Republic was underwhelming. Lamin Jawo missed a chance to level the tie early on, while the visitors' best effort came when Tochi Chukwuani's close-range header was saved.

An exasperated McInnes made three changes at the break, bringing on Curtis, Lawrence Shankland and Connor Barron, but it was Jablonec who had the better opportunities in the second half and forced Rangers to defend.

The breakthrough - and the goal that levelled the tie - came through Vakhtang Tchanturishvili with less than 20 minutes of normal time remaining. He rifled in from a tight angle beyond Ivor Pandur to give the hosts a deserved lead.

Rangers tried to work the ball forward on a number of occasions after that but their attacks lacked quality and Jablonec carved out a few opportunities on the counter, but ultimately the contest went into extra-time.

Throughout the additional half hour, it was Jablonec who continued to have the better of the chances but penalties would decide it.

Shankland, Bojan Miovski and Thelo Aasgaard scored, before Filip Zorvan's effort was saved to give Rangers the advantage.

But misses from Curtis and Penrice gave the hosts the chance to win with the final spot-kick, which Jan Chramosta converted coolly.

Jablonec v Rangers statsSNS

Analysis: Lacklustre Rangers lack quality

When Shankland arrived at Ibrox this summer, it was with an expectation that he was going to be the goalscorer the Ibrox club have been looking for.

He started on the bench on Thursday - with Ryan Naderi again preferred from the start - but was brought on at half-time and failed to make an impact and keep his Rangers goal tally at one in seven games.

Take away the 5-1 League Cup victory at home to St Mirren earlier this month, Rangers have scored four goals in five games and have won just one of those – last week's narrow victory in the first leg of this tie.

They had nine shots across the 120 minutes, one of which was on target. For context, Jablonec had 16 shots, five on target. Home goalkeeper Jan Hanus made just one save, Pandur had to make four.

But it wasn't just in front of goal that Rangers struggled in the Czech Republic. They won fewer aerial duels and played fewer final third passes (88 compared to 127 for Jablonec). They won less than 65% of their 17 tackles and committed 17 fouls.

Now, a team who has had so much success on the Europa League stage in recent years, will be without European group stage football for the first time in almost a decade.

What they said

McInnes 'mortified' at Rangers' European exit

Rangers manager Derek McInnes: "I'm embarrassed with the performance.

"I think the only people who represented the club well tonight were my support staff and the supporters who, to a man, were outstanding, getting behind the team despite watching what we all watched.

"It wasn't a good performance by any stretch of the imagination."

What's next?

Rangers travel to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday 30 August (12:00 BST). And domestic football is now all that is in their future this season.

Player of the match

V. Tchanturishvili
6.68
7 V. Tchanturishvili
6.68
18 M. Cedidla
6.58
4 N. Tekijaški
6.48
57 F. Novák
6.44
10 J. Suchan
6.44
13 R. Sedláček
6.36
44 L. Jawo
6.36
25 S. Nebyla
6.32
21 M. Polidar
6.28
6 N. Okeke
6.22
1 J. Hanuš
6.15
15 D. Pavlović
6.15
9 A. Růsek
6.09
23 E. Sobol
6.09
20 J. Sláma
6.08
8 F. Zorvan
5.92
19 J. Chramosta
5.91
Back to team tabs

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.

Related topics