Seville (Reuters)
Rangers missed a chance to win their first European title in 50 years, when they lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League final yesterday, and the impact of the defeat was evident on coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
And Rangers lost the opportunity to add a new title to their coffers and qualify directly to the group stage of the Champions League next season.
And Rangers will have to go through the difficult road, as they will participate in the third round of the Champions League qualifiers in order to qualify for the last round of qualifiers, to have the opportunity to join their local rivals Celtic in the group stage.
Van Bronckhort, a former Barcelona and Dutch defender, said Rangers had shown their ability to face the most prominent European teams.
“We showed that today, but in the new season we will have to start over,” he added. No, it is not certain that we will reach that level. We will strive and develop as a team. We want to re-appear in this role so next season we will have to do that. We will start from scratch and strive to win titles next season.
Rangers won their only continental title in 1972 when they beat Dinamo Moscow in the Cup Winners’ Cup final.
The Scottish Premier League winner 55 times recovered from a financial crisis that led to its relegation to the third tier, before returning to the top flight in 2016.
Van Bronckhorst praised a team for their performance throughout the tournament, with few expecting them to reach the final.
“I am very proud of the players,” he said. Because we had challenges due to injuries in a lot of matches and we gave everything we had like today.
We had chances, especially the one (at the end of extra time) through Ryan Kent… but penalties are a gamble and we weren’t the winners.
And James Tavernier, captain of the Rangers, found it difficult to accept defeat.
He said: I am sad. I am proud of every single one of the players, the club and the fans. We wanted to make everyone proud, but we failed. Losing on penalties is very painful.
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