Rangers verdict: fireworks of wrong sort as fizzing Clement red-carded in Hertha loss, physical struggles for Silva, Matondo audition fail

Smoke engulfed the La Manga complex as the closing seconds played out of Rangers’ 1-0 defeat in their winter break friendly against Hertha Berlin.

Philippe Clement is shown a red card as his Rangers team lose out to Hertha Berlin in the lowest of low key winter break friendlies in La Manga in Spain. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The billowing clouds proved the product of a firework display inexplicably set-off by Hertha ultras behind the dug-out areas of the pitch. It was just about one of the few occasions there were any pyrotechnics in the lowest of low-key encounters. But not the only one, with Philippe Clement so fired-up by some random officiating that the Ibrox manager earned himself a red card in the 56th minute of what proved only the second time he had endured a loss since his arrival at the club three months ago.

The Belgian earned his banishment from an over-officious Spanish referee - on an afternoon when Connor Goldson and Scott Wright were brandished yellows, the contest producing four bookings in all - after protesting a foul given against Wright when the winger had been bundled over to end up falling on top of the ball. It meant Clement had to watch the remainder of the action from behind a wire fence that surrounded the perimeter.

Whatever the Rangers’ manager’s vantage point, he would have found little to appeal to him in the lame efforts of the two XIs - one either half - he fielded against an opponent currently languishing seventh in the German second tier after finishing bottom of the Bundesliga last season. Cautioning that he did not expect his players to be “fresh” following heavy training sessions across the two days since a 31-strong squad left for their Spanish training camp, his demand that the 22 players utlised “do the maximum” in their 45-minute run-outs appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Most were off whatever pace there was for long stretches of the confrontation. A first start for Fabio Silva since his loan move from Wolves that provided the Portuguese attacker the opportunity to play through the middle, the 21-year-old struggled with Hertha’s anything-but-over-zealous physicality. Too often, and too easily, appearing able to be brushed off the ball, Rangers struggled to craft any clear opportunities in the opening period. His toils were matched by Rabbi Matondo stationed on the left of the forward line. The Welsh international was making only his second start of the Clement era, having been injured when the 49-year-old pitched up in mid-October. He hardly made the most of what could have been considered an audition to deputise for Abdallah Sima while the club’s top scorer is with Sengal at the Africa Cup of Nations over the coming weeks.

Rangers’ problems in the forward areas were compounded by fatal slackness at the back that allowed Hertha to claim the only goal a minute before the interval. Marking proving non-existent to raise questions over John Souttar and Leon Balogun’s vigilance as Marc-Oliver Kempf was able to glance a header beyond Ross McCrorie in goal from a whipped-over Marten Winkler.

The Ibrox side’s second-half selection fared little better, though they did create opportunities. Wright should have done more than stub a low shot past with the goal gaping, while Cyriel Dessers did succeed in drawing a save from the Hertha keeper with a first-time effort as Ross McCausland injected energy on the right flank. And Jack Butland made a fine block to keep his team in it, Rangers did have a late flurry that might have eked them out an equaliser. However, Clement would have expected much more - even on a surface that cut up like a race course at a jumps meeting. And he will be sure to demand his men get a gallop up when they host Champions League last 16 side Copenhagen on Tuesday evening, before their domestic season resumes with a Scottish Cup trip to Dumbarton on Saturday.

Rangers first half team: McCrorie, Tavernier, Souttar, Balogun, Ridvan, Lundstram, Raskin, Sterling, Cantwell, Matondo, Silva.

Rangers second half team: Butland, K Wright, Goldson, Dessers, Cifeuntes, S Wright, King, McCausland, Yfeko, Fraser, Lyall, Rice, McKinnon.