Rangers suffered a painful 4-1 defeat by Lyon in the Europa League at Ibrox.
The French side sliced through Philippe Clement’s men far too often, with their captain Alexandre Lacazette and Belgian teenager Malik Fofana both netting twice. Tom Lawrence levelled for Rangers early on, but his close-range strike proved only to be a consolation as the dispirited home support watched their team flounder against the Ligue 1 outfit.
The result leaves Rangers on three points after two rounds of fixtures. While the Govan outfit were impressive and comfortable 2-0 victors over Malmo in Sweden last week, this was a significant step up in quality for them against classy opposition and they found it hard to deal with Lyon’s pace and trickery.
It does not get much easier for Clement and Co, with further matches against Steaua Bucharest, Olympiacos, Nice, Tottenham, Manchester United and Union Saint-Gilloise in this revamped and expanded second tier of European football.
We give each player a mark out for ten for their performance against Lyon at Ibrox.
9. Tom Lawrence
The Welshman kept up his recent goalscoring run with Rangers' leveller, but injured his knee in the process. Soldiered on until the break, where he was replaced by Dowell. 6 | SNS Group
10. Nedim Bajrami
Was Rangers' brightest player in an attacking sense. Pulled off one moment of extreme skill in the first half on the touchline and dribbled with purpose. Replaced by McCausland. 6 | SNS Group
11. Cyriel Dessers
The Nigerian forward was involved in Lawrence's goal, chasing down a short back header from Tolisso, but did not get much change thereafter out of the Lyon defenders. 5 | PA
12. Substitutes
Kieran Dowell appeared at half time but could not swing the midfield battle. Nearly scored with a left-footed effort. Neraysho Kasanwirjo, Nicolas Raskin (above), Dujon Sterling and Ross McCausland were also introduced in the second period, to little avail. | SNS Group