Fewer touches than McGregor: Rangers dud who lost possession 15x let Gvb down badly - opinion

Rangers suffered late heartbreak in the Europa League on Thursday night as they lost 1-0 in the first-leg of their semi-final clash.

Gio van Bronckhorst’s men travelled away from Ibrox and set-up to make it difficult for their opponents and they did exactly that as they limited the opposition to one big opportunity.

The best chance of the match fell to Christopher Nkunku and the Frenchman somehow managed to fire the ball high and wide with the goal at his mercy after dribbling past Allan McGregor inside the box.

Leipzig then found the winning goal from half a chance, at best, as Angelino fired in a volley on the full from the edge of the box in the final 10 minutes.

As part of the defensive, counter-attacking, set-up, van Bronckhorst opted for pace at the top end of the pitch with a front two of Ryan Kent and Scott Wright. It was the latter’s second start in the Europa League this season and his performance explained why he has been rarely used throughout the campaign as he let the head coach down badly.

The Scot was given a huge opportunity to prove that he can play a big role in winning major silverware for Rangers this season and failed to make the most of it. He struggled on and off the ball as he looked uncomfortable playing as a makeshift centre-forward alongside Kent.

Out of possession, he did very little. As per SofaScore, he lost four of his seven individual duels and 100% of his aerial battles. He made zero clearances, blocks and interceptions and completed one tackle in the match as he did little to help out his teammates on the defensive side of the game.

On the ball, he offered almost nothing. He had fewer touches (31) than Allan McGregor (41) and lost possession 15 times. He also completed just eight of his