Napoli continue superb form by sweeping Rangers aside

Rangers' sobering Champions League campaign continued on its downward trajectory with a 3-0 defeat to Napoli in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

A 7-1 loss by Liverpool at Ibrox in their last Group A outing had shocked the Glasgow club and their fans and it looked ominous when striker Giovanni Simeone scored twice in the first 16 minutes for the dominant home side.

The second half was more encouraging for the visitors but defender Leo Ostigard headed in a third from a corner in the 80th minute to seal the win and leave the accomplished Serie A leaders with five section wins out of five.

By contrast, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side have lost all five games, conceding 19 goals and scoring one, and he will find himself under more pressure.

Last season's Europa League finalists are out of Europe altogether barring an unlikely thrashing of Ajax in the final game at Ibrox next week.

A real sense of trepidation surrounded Rangers for the trip to Naples to play an in-form team who won 3-0 at Ibrox, albeit the home side had put up a good fight until James Sands had been sent off.

It was another reshuffled Rangers line-up with Van Bronckhorst giving a first Champions League start to left-back Ridvan Yilmaz, while Sands, Alfredo Morelos and Scott Wright came back in.

Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti made six changes as he rested some key players including Hirving Lozano, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen.

However, the Italian outfit - unbeaten in all 15 previous games this season with 11 straight wins - were still packed with quality, including captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo and defender Minjae Kim with Ostigard making his debut in defence.

Van Bronckhorst had asked for a display of character but that was in question as they soon fell