Steven Gerrard warned his Rangers players that their Champions League dream will be over unless they produce a radically improved display against Malmo next Tuesday.
Although Steven Davis scored with the last kick of the ball in Sweden, the loss of two goals at the start of the second half has left the Ibrox men’s hopes of reaching the group stages on a knife edge.
Sloppy and unconvincing for most of the night, Rangers were undone by Soren Rieks and Veljko Birmancevic in a disastrous two-minute spell.
Manager Steven Gerrard (above) warned his Rangers players that their Champions League dream will be over unless they produce a radically improved display against Malmo
But while veteran Davis’ deflected injury-time strike halved the deficit for an under-strength Rangers’ side, Gerrard felt the display fell well short of the standards his side have set.
‘We are disappointed with the result, disappointed with a couple of the goals we conceded but I think there has just been a big moment at the very end of that game that has obviously gone in our favour,’ he reflected after his first loss in a qualifier.
‘It is a big moment, in my opinion, and it sets it up for next week. It is not the position that we wanted to be in, but it is obviously better than going in 2-0 (down) and we were also maybe on the verge of going in even worse as well.
‘The injury time has been big for us, but our performance over the 90 minutes hasn’t been good enough.
‘We are going to have to go up levels individually and collectively next week. I am going to call on the Ibrox crowd. I have never done it before, but we are going to need them. We are going to need them for a full 90 minutes. With that behind us, and the mentality change in injury time, it could be a big moment.’
Rangers were left to pay the price
