Rangers’ hopes of playing European football this season have been dramatically ended after Derek McInnes’ side suffered a painful defeat to Jablonec, with the Czech side prevailing on penalties after the second leg finished 1-0 in normal time to level the tie at 1-1 on aggregate.
What followed was an emotional night in the Rangers camp, with manager Derek McInnes delivering a brutally honest assessment of his players after watching his side surrender the advantage they had built at Ibrox.
Rangers had entered the second leg knowing that a positive result would secure their place in the Conference League, having taken a 1-0 lead from the first meeting.
However, Jablonec refused to be intimidated.
The home side produced a committed performance, scoring the only goal of the second leg before eventually taking the tie to penalties. Rangers were unable to complete the job from the spot, with Jablonec emerging victorious and securing their place in the next stage.
For Rangers, the consequences are enormous.
The defeat means the club will not participate in the Conference League and, having failed to qualify through this route, will not compete in any European competition this season.
For McInnes, the defeat is particularly painful.
The Rangers boss was appointed with the expectation that he would help restore consistency and ambition to the club, and leading Rangers into European competition in his first season would have represented a significant early achievement.
Instead, his first opportunity to guide the club onto the European stage has ended in disappointment.
Speaking after the match, McInnes was asked for his honest verdict on how Rangers could lose a tie they had been leading after the first leg, particularly after having the opportunity to finish the job in Jablonec.
The Rangers manager did not hide his frustration.
He pointed directly at what he believed was missing from his players on the night: passion, togetherness and the mentality required to represent Rangers in a European competition.
“Jablonec played with passion, they played as a team and, honestly, that is what we lacked tonight. They wanted it, they fought for every ball and they looked like a group of players who understood exactly what was at stake. My boys didn’t play with that same passion. They didn’t play like a team that desperately wanted to be on the European stage, and ultimately we paid for that dearly. When you wear the Rangers shirt, you have to understand what it means. During my time as a player here, I always took it upon myself to make sure Rangers succeeded. I played for the badge, I played for the supporters and I played for the people who expect this club to compete at the highest level. Tonight, I didn’t see enough of that. I know the disappointment will hurt, and it hurts me more than anyone because I was supposed to lead this team into Europe in my first season as manager. That would have been an achievement for me and something I desperately wanted to give the club. Instead, we have denied ourselves that opportunity. Jablonec showed the passion and togetherness that you need in games like this, and we simply didn’t show enough of it. There are no excuses. We have to accept responsibility because this was a huge opportunity and we have paid a very heavy price for not taking it.”
Those comments immediately created tension among sections of the Rangers support, but the biggest reaction reportedly came from inside the dressing room.
Rangers captain Lawrence Shankland was said to have been furious after hearing the manager’s assessment.
The striker is understood to have strongly disagreed with the suggestion that the Rangers players lacked passion or commitment, particularly after a match in which the team had fought through a difficult away atmosphere before the tie was ultimately decided by penalties.
Shankland reportedly questioned why the manager would publicly criticise the players so strongly when, in his view, the squad had given everything they could on the pitch.
The Rangers captain’s response reflected the frustration inside a dressing room that had watched European qualification disappear in the most painful fashion.
Lawrence Shankland: “I completely understand that the manager is disappointed because we are all disappointed. Nobody in that dressing room wanted to lose tonight and nobody wanted to come here and walk away without European football. But I don’t think it is fair to say that the players didn’t have passion or that we didn’t play like a team who wanted to be in Europe. We gave everything we had on that pitch. Every player in that dressing room wanted to win that game, and it hurts when you hear that we didn’t care enough or that we didn’t fight enough because that simply isn’t true. Football can be cruel. We had the advantage from the first leg, we came here knowing what was at stake, and we fought until the end. We lost on penalties, and that is something we have to accept, but it doesn’t mean the players didn’t care. We are the ones who have to live with this disappointment and we are hurting just as much as anyone. The supporters deserved better, the club deserved better and we wanted to give them European football. But nobody went onto that pitch thinking we were going to lose. We gave everything we could, and it is not our fault that the game went against us in the way it did. We have to stick together now rather than pointing fingers at each other.”
The reported exchange has only intensified debate among Rangers supporters, with many fans split over whether McInnes was right to question his players’ mentality.
Some supporters backed the manager, arguing that Rangers had failed to demonstrate the urgency expected from a side fighting for European football.
One fan, @RangersRab, wrote: “McInnes is absolutely right. This was not an ordinary game. Rangers had Europe in their hands and let it slip away. The performance simply wasn’t good enough.”
Another supporter, @IbroxLoyal, disagreed completely, posting: “Shankland is right to challenge this. You can criticise the performance without questioning the players’ desire. They gave everything and penalties decided the tie.”
A third fan, @RFC1967, added: “This is exactly why tonight hurts so much. We had the advantage, we had the opportunity and now there is no European football. Massive failure.
The defeat leaves McInnes facing a difficult beginning to his Rangers tenure.
Rather than celebrating European qualification in his first season, the manager must now deal with the consequences of a result that has removed Rangers from European competition altogether.
For Shankland and the Rangers players, the challenge is equally clear.
And after McInnes’ explosive assessment and Shankland’s reported response, Rangers must now find a way to ensure that one devastating night in Jablonec does not define the rest of their season.
