Real Betis wave Rangers white flag as Manuel Pellegrini goes back to the 80s with shock meek resistance

Pragmatic Manuel Pellegrini claims his main focus is winning home games days before he sends out his Real Betis side to face Rangers at Ibrox.

The 70-year-old proved willing to lean into suggestions he lacks the swashbuckling streak of his peers after his cold-blooded take on his side's 5-0 trouncing at the hands of Barcelona. The former Real Madrid and Manchester City boss refused to hit the panic button ahead of locking horns with Rangers in the Europa League. And he insists results away from home are purely a bonus for him, a way of thinking more commonplace in the 1980s. Pellegrini said: "Very ugly defeat, but we will continue, we will raise our heads and fight for the points. As I always say, if you can beat your teams at their own home, the better, but they are not the points that mark the season."

The hope rather than expect approach might be a prudent one for a Betis side who have conceded nine goals in their last two games and sold star defender Luiz Felipe to Al-Ittihad before the transfer window closed. But Pellegrini pointed to potential green shoots of recovery if his strikers rediscover their shooting boots. He added: "A very painful defeat, a tough result. Losing 5-0 is of course not within what was expected, but that's football. In the first half we had three one-on-ones alone with the goalkeeper, we didn't make them, they converted the goals.

"And it was a second half where we already had an advantage and we had to take risks, they found the spaces and surpassed us. Against these teams, when you have three one-on-one with the goalkeeper and they don't convert, it is very difficult to get a good result."

Rangers – the top seeds in Group C - won 2-0 against St Johnstone on Sunday and now Michael Beale