Michael Beale apologises to fans after Rangers’ Champions League hopes are crushed by PSV… as captain James Tavernier calls on Ibrox side to bounce back against Celtic
- The Scottish side suffered a heavy 7-3 aggregate defeat to their opponents
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Michael Beale apologised to the Rangers fans and admitted the buck stops with him after the Ibrox side’s Champions League dream was torn to ribbons in a 5-1 thrashing by PSV Eindhoven.
Rangers fell 2-0 behind at Philips Stadium to a double by the excellent Ismael Saibari before James Tavernier gave them brief hope by pulling back a second-half goal.
Just 91 seconds later, however, Luuk de Jong’s header put PSV back in charge before a Joey Veerman strike and a bizarre Connor Goldson own goal wrapped up a painful 7-3 aggregate defeat for the Scots.
Rangers missed out on a £20million Champions League bounty and will play their football in the Europa League for the first time since reaching the final in 2022.
Afterwards, Beale said: ‘I’m hugely disappointed with the result. Over the two legs we struggled to handle De Jong and Saibari, the two forwards. And in key moments, certainly on set-plays in both games, we conceded.
Michael Beale’s side crashed out with a 7-3 aggregate defeat to Dutch giants on Wednesday
PSV have qualified for the Champions League group stage at the expense of Rangers
‘Listen, the bucks stops with me. I wasn’t happy with losing the way we lost tonight. There were moments in the game that could have gone for us but it’s bitterly frustrating.
‘In two games against PSV, we have scored three goals. The problem is at the other end of the pitch.
‘It’s bitterly disappointed we are out of the Champions League. I think we played against an excellent team.
‘But just an apology to our fans who came across. They stuck with the team in both legs and they expect a bit more than what they got.’
Meanwhile, Tavernier urged Rangers to bounce back quickly ahead of the first Old Firm game of the season against Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday.
The captain said: ‘It’s obviously really raw and hard to take. We knew how much it meant to the fans and the club and obviously the scoreline is really disappointing.
‘But it’s something that we need to move quickly on from because we’ve got a really important league game at the weekend.
‘If you score three goals in both legs you hope you’d have a chance of going through. But we conceded too many goals.
‘In the first half, we knew we should have done better. We’ve come out in the second half and tried to get on the ball a bit more.
‘The goals we conceded were poor and it’s a tough one to take. But we’ve got to quickly move on from it.
‘We are in the Europa League now so we have to concentrate on that.
Rangers collapsed in the second-half, conceding four goals in a comfy win for their opponents
James Tavernier had briefly given Rangers a glimmer of hope after pulling the second leg score back to 2-1, only for PSV to score their third of five goals just two minutes later
‘The most important thing is at the weekend before the international break. We have to dust ourselves down, reflect and really be at it.
‘Obviously you want to be in the Champions League. The feeling we had here last year (when Rangers qualified for the group stages) was an unbelievable feeling and we wanted to have the same.
‘It wasn’t to be and that’s disappointing, the manner of how we got beat.’
The Champions League draw takes place on Thursday evening, with the Europa League draw to follow on Friday.
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