Gio van Bronckhorst vows Rangers will be 'smart' with red card appeals as he makes comparison with Hibs challenge

Rangers have been left to ruminate on their Easter Road regrets. Now after taking their first stumble in the race for the Premiership flag, Gio van Bronckhorst has made it clear to his team they cannot afford to be so rueful in Eindhoven.

Rangers had done the hard bit on Saturday by twice getting themselves in front against Hibs. But much of that graft was thrown away as the Light Blues let themselves down on the discipline and imagination fronts.

Van Bronckhorst may fancy his chances of appealing John Lundstram ’s controversial sending-off in Leith after his trip on Martin Boyle drew a major over-reaction from Willie Collum but the referee’s decision to dismiss Alfredo Morelos for a flailing arm on Marijan Cabraya seems certain to stick. It was a return to nasty habits from the Colombian. It’s two and a half years since his last dismissal at Celtic Park in December 2019 and aside from a couple of retrospective bans he’s largely kept his nose clean.

But he left his team up against it for the final 15 minutes. Two men light, the mismatch finally worked in Hibs’ favour as Josh Campbell snatched a stoppage-time equaliser. But van Bronckhorst has every right to feel his team could have avoided all this unnecessary stress had they been more effective when the numbers were level.

Tom Lawrence’s firm header finished off a slick team move to put Rangers back in front and was a demonstration of what this side is capable of once it gets in full flow. But there are too many times when they are mis-firing.

If that is repeated against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s PSV outfit on Wednesday then there’s a real risk the Ibrox men can forget about laying on a Champions League spread this season. The Dutchman said: “There were transition