Rangers FC vs Napoli: More of the Same

Rangers FC's European season from hell continued last night with another woeful Champions League outing. Whilst many fans will have already come to terms with the fact that there will be no European football after Christmas, they would still have been hoping (rather than expecting) for a better showing than in recent weeks. 

For the second time in 5 days, Rangers FC got off to a horror start. Just 11 minutes in, Napoli wonderkid Giovanni Simeone easily lost both centre halves to collect the ball in the Rangers FC box and unleashed a clinical finish past McGregor. A good goal from a Napoli perspective, but very avoidable from a Rangers FC point of view. The Serie A leaders doubled their lead a matter of minutes later through Simeone once again. Scott Wright failed to stop a cross from the right hand side, which youngster King misjudged, leaving Simeone to glance a header into the back of the net. It was looking like a long night was in store. 

The storm was weathered for the remainder of the first half and the team actually managed to produce a respectable second half performance, gaining a foothold in the game. Several chances were created, none better than the glaring opportunity Morelos missed, with Yilmaz putting the ball on a plate only for the Colombian to miss from 6 yards out. Any hope of a comeback was lost when Ostigard powered home a header from a corner in the 80th minute to close the scoring.

In his post match interview, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst stated he believes there were positives to take from last nights showing. He could possibly be referring to the cameos of James Sands and Ridvan Yilmaz who showed flickers of quality were nothing to write home about. What is more concerning is the lack effort and desire shown by the players. Despite having 62% possession, Napoli outran Rangers FC by 4km last night. Although Giovanni Van Bronckhorst is coming under considerable criticism, and righty so, the players have to look at their own efforts which at the moment are terribly sub-par. 

        The stats make grim reading for Rangers FC fans and Giovanni van Bronckhorst