'Mortified' Derek McInnes dissects Rangers' abysmal European exit as Nico Raskin transfer update issued

The Ibrox side ventured close to the picturesque Jizera Mountains aiming to protect their slender advantage after a 1-0 victory in a turgid first leg at Ibrox last week. However, they failed to make it count, producing a flat and lethargic display as Vakhtang Tchanturishvili levelled the tie on aggregate to force extra-time before Rangers suffered a 4-3 defeat in the shootout.

Rangers goalkeeper Ivor Pandur saved from Filip Zorvan to give the visitors the upper hand in sudden death, but Findlay Curtis and James Penrice then both failed to convert from 12 yards. Jan Chramosta made no mistake with the decisive penalty to condemn Rangers to a second European elimination in the space of a few weeks.

The result means Rangers will be without European football beyond August for the first time since their 2017 Europa League qualifying defeat to Progrès Niederkorn of Luxembourg. It will also increase scrutiny on McInnes, whose opening months in charge have been far from productive.

For the Rangers boss, however, the manner of the defeat was just as concerning as the result itself. McInnes made no attempt to disguise his anger, accepting that his team had fallen well below the standards required in such a pivotal fixture.

“It’s such a low point,” McInnes said in his post-match assessment. “I’m embarrassed with the result. I’ll take responsibility for the result, but the responsibility is shared. The players have got to be better than that. We know that.

“It’s my job to help the players, but they’ve got to help themselves as well. I’m gutted for the supporters because they’ve come here. We come over on a charter flight, we stay in a nice hotel, we get all the preparation, and they come here whatever way they can.

“They don’t always need to see their team perform brilliantly, but they do deserve to see their team perform way better than that. For that, it’s not good enough.”

McInnes: ‘I’m mortified by the performance’

Rangers had already been knocked out of the Europa League by Polish side Jagiellonia Białystok and have claimed just one point from their opening two Scottish Premiership fixtures. Their latest European display offered little to suggest an immediate turnaround is on the horizon.

McInnes claimed after the first leg that Rangers could not afford to rely on a single strong performance across two matches. His warning proved prophetic as Jablonec overturned the deficit on home soil, leaving the Rangers boss under mounting pressure.

His willingness to accept responsibility for the exit may resonate with disgruntled supporters, but it will not lessen the questions surrounding his future.

“I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses whatsoever,” McInnes continued. “Yes, there’s been a big turnover of players. Yes, we looked very inexperienced at times. But the responsibility is mine to make sure that we are better than what we served up tonight.

“And we were miles short, miles short. I thought the opposition were better than us in most aspects of the game, so we got what we deserved.

“If we’d won it on penalties, we’d have taken it, of course, because of how important that is. But we’d have covered over the cracks, to be honest. I’m mortified by the performance. I know you can lose games of football, but we should have enough in the building to take care of that tonight.”

Nico Raskin transfer update emerges

Rangers made the trip to northern Czechia without influential midfielder Nicolas Raskin amid increased transfer interest in the Belgium international.

Asked whether Raskin was any closer to leaving the club, McInnes said: “There have been no offers for Nico. It’s just been quite a few conversations, so I don’t know where that was. Certainly not today, ahead of the game – I hadn’t heard anything.

“That may well change. But I did think we lacked a bit of experience in the middle of the pitch at times. I think any team would miss somebody like Nico, but I need to say that’s not the reason why we’ve lost tonight.”

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