Napoli’s Politano ends 10-man Rangers’ resistance after McGregor’s heroics

Wayne Rooney notched a late winner from the penalty spot for Manchester United the last time Ibrox staged a Champions League group stage match. Almost 12 years on, penalties defined Rangers’ return to this environment. The whiff of controversy filled the Govan air.

Allan McGregor twice denied Piotr Zielinski from 12 yards – the Polish midfielder had been ordered to retake – by the time Matteo Politano made no mistake from the same position. Napoli, so formidable in their domestic league and when hammering Liverpool in their opening Group A fixture, will claim with a fair degree of justification that they deserved to leave Glasgow with three points but Rangers dragged the Italians into a battle. After watching his team slump to successive 4-0 defeats, to Celtic and Ajax, Giovanni van Bronckhorst will look back on this tie positively. Against vastly superior opponents, Rangers were at least properly competitive for most of the game.

The passing of the Queen inevitably registered more at Ibrox than at many other football grounds across the UK. Rangers’ cultural identity is intrinsically linked to Britishness and, in turn, the royal family. A large tifo display paid tribute to the Queen as the teams emerged. A minute of perfect silence was punctured by the playing of God Save The King over the stadium’s Tannoy; it remains to be seen whether Uefa take action against that, given advice offered to British clubs before this week’s Champions League fixtures. That the referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, stood motionless in the centre circle as the national anthem played inferred acceptance that this would happen.

Against this backdrop, it was curious that the match started at such pace. Rangers should have been ahead within 30 seconds,