Rangers boss Steven Gerrard bemoans players' inability to carry out ruthless 'game plan'

Steven Gerrard bellows instructions to his Rangers players from the sidelines.

A return visit to the Stade Josy Barthel means re-living the event of two years ago, when Rangers fell to a disastrous 2-0 defeat to exit the competition against the same opponents following a 1-0 win at Ibrox.

Although he was not in charge at the time it’s why Gerrard wanted a greater margin of victory last night. Rangers had every opportunity to secure it against the part-time visitors, who were reduced to ten men following Tom Laterza’s late red card.

As well as scoring twice through Joe Aribo and Sheyi Ojo they missed a host of chances, including a penalty from James Tavernier midway through the second half that hit the post.

“The game plan was to try and kill the tie as early as we can,” said Gerrard afterwards. “We created more than enough chances to do that. In big moments in the game we just have not been clinical enough – obviously the penalty and we probably had six or seven decent chances on top of that.”

In the end Rangers had to rely on goalkeeper Allan McGregor to prevent Progres halving the deficit when he blocked an effort from Jack Mmaee after the substitute was put clean through.

“The longer the game we were chasing a third goal and there was a bit of indiscipline at the back and we lost our shape and we could have been caught out,” said Gerrard. “There’s work to do but the problem is now Progres’s because we have two goals and a clean sheet. You could see a gulf between both teams tonight, so they need to do something drastically different from their game plan. I predict there will be openings next week for us to create more chances.”

Gerrard praised the contribution of summer signing Aribo, who scored his second goal in two appearances for his new side.

“Joe was excellent I thought throughout in both sides of his game,” he said. “He works ever so hard for the team positionally. In terms of attributes and where he can go he has started his Rangers career really strongly. He has the fans where he needs them. He should take huge confidence from that. I predict a huge future for him but it is important not to pile too much expectation on the kid. But playing in front of 45,000 in Europe, not many clubs can give him that opportunity. So far, so good.”