Rangers spared cricket score in Naples as worst ever Champions League record edges closer

It says everything about the hideousness of this Champions League tilt for Rangers that their latest hiding may elicit a degree of relief from the under-pressure Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

It was a given that the Ibrox side would be slain by Napoli in the Diego Maradona stadium, and so be potentially only 90 minutes away from a pointless campaign that would represent the worst group showing of any team in the competition's history. Yet, few gave them a chance of avoiding another battering in the bracket of the 7-1 loss to Liverpool last time out. In that sense, escaping with a 3-0 in Naples – and there was a sizeable element of fortune in their avoidance of far heavier punishment – made for an evening that didn't serve up all the indignities practically expected of it. Not so much a crumb of comfort, perhaps, as a half crumb. But something before they have to avoid defeat in next week’s final group encounter at home to Ajax. Never mind the must-win league clash at Aberdeen on Saturday at Ibrox.

Context is required. The chasm in levels ensured the contest, as it was, at times had the appearance of Champions League team against Sunday league team. Napoli, though, are a genuinely elite side at their zenith - as evidenced by claiming a club-record 12th straight victory to eclipse the 11 such sequence in the fabled Maradona era. With their bounding, bustling attacking verve, they have filleted Liverpool and Ajax in Group A, and with Giovanni Simeone bagging a five-minute double with hardly a quarter of an hour played, a cricket score seemed set to ensue. Even as they had rested a raft of their big beasts.

It didn't because, however fragile van Bronckhorst's team have become, unlike the lop-sided losses in previous group outings, they didn't become toe-curlingly feckless or forlorn. They stuck at their tasks as best they could; with their myriad limitations. As Napoli, in taking their tally in the competition to 19 goals, undoubtedly dropped off. Yet, but for Alfredo Morelos' continued impression of being attached to an invisible truck, they might even have netted. The Colombian falling short in failing to draw more than a comfortable save from Alex Meret when given a chance to break forward at the end of the first, before not being on it when only required to touch in a ball flashed across the box early in the second.

Napoli's Giovanni Simeone leaves the Rangers defence in despair after scoring his second inside 16 minutes. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)

In a rare start, and first outing in the competition, Ridvan Yilmaz was purposeful, and central as Rangers rallied in the second period. Meanwhile, Malik Tillman showed application and craft to create a few glimpses in the box. It would have been easy to capitulate – Rangers have shown they have that in them – following a nightmarish start. That resulted in an 11th minute opener after Simeone dissected Ben Davies and Leon King to bring down smartly a sumptious curling right-wing cross from Giovanni Di Lorenzo before clubbing it in at the far corner of Allan McGregor's net. Fed from the other side by Mario Rui dropping an inch-perfect cross on his head as the visiting centre-backs were again exposed, Simeone himself seemed on his way to three. As it was, only Napoli arrived at that figure in the 80th minutes through Leo Ostigard snapping his neck muscles to generate incredible power into a header from a corner. The 19th goal Rangers have conceded in Group A, any loss to Ajax would mean a negative goal difference unrivalled by any pointless team in the tournament.