Nine-man Gers crash out of Champions League
Nine-man Rangers crashed out of the Champions League at the first hurdle following a fiery 1-1 draw away to Malmo which also saw the home side end with ten players last night. The Ibrox side, trailing 1-0 from the first leg, were reduced to ten men in...
Nine-man Rangers crashed out of the Champions League at the first hurdle following a fiery 1-1 draw away to Malmo which also saw the home side end with ten players last night.
The Ibrox side, trailing 1-0 from the first leg, were reduced to ten men in the 18th minute when Steven Whittaker saw red for an off-the-ball incident. However, the Gers still levelled the game on aggregate six minutes later through Nikica Jelavic’s volley.
Madjid Bougherra was ordered off in the 66th minute for elbowing Dardan Rexhepi before Malmo’s Ricardinho joined him for an early bath for a second booking.
Rangers were only 10 minutes away from extra time when Jiloan Hamad got a vital equaliser to put the Swedes into the next round.
Ally McCoist’s side will now join rivals Celtic in the final qualifying round for the Europa League group stages.
The Rangers manager felt his side had been the masters of their own demise.
“Obviously, the result is a blow but I thought when we were down to ten and nine men the fact we keep ourselves in it was very pleasing,” said McCoist.
“But I don’t think there is any doubt about it that indiscipline probably cost us the tie.”
Champions League
| Third qualifying round | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Agg |
| Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) vs HJK Helsinki (Finland) | 2-1 | 1-0 | 3-1 |
| FC Zurich (Switzerland) vs Standard Liege (Belgium) | 1-1 | 1-0 | 2-1 |
| FK Partizan (Serbia) vs Genk (Belgium) | 1-2 | 1-1 | 2-3 |
| Malmo (Sweden) vs Rangers (Scotland) | 1-0 | 1-1 | 2-1 |
| NK Maribor (Slovenia) vs Maccabi Haifa (Israel) | 1-2 | 1-1 | 2-3 |
| Rubin Kazan (Russia) vs Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) | 2-0 | 2-1 | 4-1 |
| S. Bratislava (Slovakia) vs APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus) | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0-2 |
| Sturm Graz (Austria) vs Zestafoni (Georgia) | 1-1 | 1-0 | 2-1 |
| Trabzonspor (Turkey) vs Benfica (Portugal) | 0-2 | 1-1 | 1-3 |
| Vaslui (Romania) vs FC Twente (Holland) | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 |
| Viktoria Plzen (Czech Rep.) vs Rosenborg (Norway) | 1-0 | 3-2 | 4-2 |
| Wisla Krakow (Poland) vs Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) | 2-1 | 3-1 | 5-2 |
| Played Tuesday | |||
| BATE Borisov (Belarus) vs FK Ekranas (Lithuania) | 0-0 | 3-1 | 3-1 |
| Panathinaikos (Greece) vs Odense OB (Denmark) | 1-1 | 3-4 | 4-5 |
| Shamrock (Ireland) vs FC Copenhagen (Denmark) | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-3 |