Injury-time Rapid Vienna goal sends Rangers bottom of Group G

Rangers have been dealt a blow in their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League after Rapid Vienna snatched a last-gap victory away to Spartak Moscow.

With the scores tied 1-1, after Mert Muldur cancelled out Ze Luis’ 20th minute opener for the hosts, Spartak were pushing forward in search of a winner.

Instead, they were caught cold when Philipp Schobesberger broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper before running the ball into the back of the net.

Rapid Vienna's Philipp Schobesberger scores his side's late winner. Picture: AP

The result pushes Rangers to the bottom of Group G ahead of their clash with Villarreal at Ibrox tonight.

While a win is not imperative, Steven Gerrard’s men are now looking at a scenario where it would be extremely difficult to quality with two draws from their final two matches.

Had Rapid and Spartak stayed 1-1, avoiding defeat in each of their last two would likely have been enough for the Light Blues.

The silver lining is that victory against Villarreal would push them top of the group and would be enough to qualify if there’s no winner between Spartak and the Spanish side in their final match against each other.

It also means Rangers can lose on Thursday evening and still qualify with a victory away to group leaders Rapid in a fortnight’s time, providing Villarreal avoid defeat.