Malmo 1 - 1 Rangers: Unruly Rangers engineers of their own downfall

RANGERS made a miserable and largely self-inflicted exit from the Champions League on an evening where they ended with just nine men on the pitch and a glaring deficit in their potential bank balance for the season ahead.

This was a night which saw the Ibrox club in the red in every sense. Wearing their change strip of that hue, they had Steven Whittaker sent off after just 18 minutes for a senseless show of temper before Madjid Bougherra suffered the same fate for a wild and needless foul in the second half.

Even then, Rangers had the opportunity to win the third qualifying round tie when Nikica Jelavic, who had given them a 23rd-minute lead to cancel out the first leg deficit sustained eight days earlier, missed from close range.

A moderate Malmo side, themselves reduced to ten men by Brazilian full-back Ricardinho's dismissal, took advantage of the reprieve to level on the night and claim their place in the play-off round courtesy of Jiloan Hamad's 80th-minute strike.

Rangers now drop into the Europa League play-offs instead, the 15 million jackpot available in the elite tournament having slipped from the grasp of new chairman Craig Whyte and manager Ally McCoist who are both experiencing a painfully difficult start to their tenures.

Whittaker had spoken on the eve of the game of his determination to compensate for his error which led to Malmo scoring the only goal of the first leg in Glasgow last Tuesday. Instead, he merely compounded the felony with the witless offence which left Russian referee Vladislav Bezborodov with no other recourse than to issue him with a straight red card so early in the game.

Rangers had already been penalised for Bougherra's foul on Daniel Larsson wide on the left when the ball broke inside and Whittaker, for reasons even he will struggle to explain, threw it petulantly at Jimmy Durmaz. As players of both sides squared up to each other, Bezborodov required the help of his assistant Nikolai Golubev to restore order before first dismissing Whittaker and then booking Bougherra for the original offence.

The reduction in numbers was an unwelcome jolt for McCoist who would have been encouraged by the way his team had started the match firmly on the front foot.The hours immediately before kick-off had been turbulent as Rangers won their second appeal to Uefa to have recent signing Dorin Goian ruled eligible for the match, only for the big Romanian defender to miss out anyway with a reported hamstring injury.

McCoist recast his defence with Sasa Papac partnering Bougherra in the centre, while Lee Wallace slotted in at left-back. Lee McCulloch was just in front of the back four in a 4-1-4-1 formation designed to try and combine adventure with robustness. Juan Manuel Ortiz was deployed on the left of midfield and created the first opening of the night with a fine through ball aimed for Jelavic, the Croatian robbed of a shooting chance by Malmo captain Daniel Andersson's supremely timed tackle.

Malmo goalkeeper Dusan Melicharek then had to turn a Jelavic header behind from a Steven Davis corner as Rangers carried the contest to their hosts. Pontus Jansson blazed a decent opportunity off target from the edge of the penalty area for Malmo, while Allan McGregor was forced into his first save of the evening shortly before Whittaker's exit when he touched Wilton Figueiredo's curling free-kick over.

Rangers, however, would feel the match was developing as positively as they might have hoped. The loss of Whittaker clearly altered that perception, McCoist quickly reshuffling his troops into a 4-4-1 formation with midfielder Maurice Edu dropping back into the right-back role vacated by his sinning team-mate.

But far from turning the tide against Rangers, it led to them taking the lead on the evening just five minutes later with Jelavic's expertly finished goal. It was Edu, bursting forward down the right from his new position, who delivered the cross which Jelavic met at the far post with a first time right-foot shot from around eight yards out which beat Melicharek.

Edu was fortunate to avoid punishment from the hard-pressed referee when he lashed out at Durmaz off the ball. The Malmo winger was a source of irritation to Rangers both on and off the ball, forcing a hasty clearance from Papac just in front of goal after his shot had eluded McGregor.

The action became increasingly fractious, Edu subsequently finding his way into Bezborodov's notebook for a foul on Durmaz before Ricardinho quickly joined him after a trip on Davis.

As late challenges continued to come from both sides, the game should have become ten versus ten on the stroke of half-time. Durmaz somehow escaped any sanction for a blatant act of retaliation on McCulloch who was correctly booked for his initial foul on the Malmo man. The incensed Rangers players surrounded the referee in protest at his failure to dismiss Durmaz and the half-time whistle came as something of a relief.

After an initially less frenzied opening to the second half, when Larsson's scuffed half chance straight at McGregor was as close as either side came, the flurry of yellow and red cards resumed.

Rangers could have few complaints about the increasingly difficult circumstances they found themselves in.

Naismith was foolishly booked for kicking the ball away right in front of the referee after a free-kick was awarded against him before Bougherra stained what was almost certainly his final appearance in a Rangers jersey with his 66th-minute dismissal.

He jumped with a leading elbow to crash through Dardan Rexhepi in an aerial challenge, prompting another justified straight red card from Mr Bezborodov before play was delayed for several minutes as the stricken Malmo player was carried off on a stretcher.

The odds were balanced a little more in terms of personnel just seven minutes later when Malmo were reduced to ten men, Ricardinho collecting his second yellow card of the night for a foul on Jelavic.

Rangers' nine men should have plundered a telling second goal immediately afterwards, but Jelavic sliced a left-foot shot wide from close range after being played in by the tireless Naismith.

It was to prove a telling miss as Malmo equalised on the night and restored their aggregate lead with ten minutes remaining.

McGregor saved brilliantly from Pontus Jansson as the home side began to press, but when the ball broke to Hamad on the edge of the penalty area, he left the Rangers goalkeeper helpless with a beautifully struck left foot volley.

Malmo: Melicharek, Hamad, Jansson, Andersson, Ricardinho; Mehmeti (Stenstrom 34), Mutavdzic (Rexhepi 46) (Aubynn 69), Pekalski, Durmaz; Figueiredo, Larsson. Subs not used: Fernandez, Nazari, Nilsson, Garaca.

Rangers: McGregor, Whittaker, Bougherra, Papac, Wallace; McCulloch; Naismith, Davis, Edu, Ortiz (Hemmings 84); Jelavic. Subs not used: Alexander, Broadfoot, Healy, Fleck, Bendiksen, Wylde.