Rangers were left reeling as they crashed out of the Uefa Conference League playoffs with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out defeat to Jablonec.
Leading 1-0 from the first leg at Ibrox last week, Derek McInnes’s side turned in a turgid performance in Czechia which lacked creativity and invention. It proved costly as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Stadion Strelnice, drawing 1-1 on aggregate after extra time to set up the final shootout.
Despite McInnes introducing Lawrence Shankland, Connor Barron and Findlay Curtis in the second half, Rangers could not get a foothold in the game. The Jablonec midfielder Vakhtang Chanturishvili deservedly levelled the tie in the 73rd minute with a low drive to beat Rangers keeper Ivor Pandur.
There were no more goals which brought penalties, and although Pandur saved from Filip Zorvan, Curtis fired his spot-kick over the bar. James Penrice was then thwarted by Jablonec keeper Jan Hanus, leaving Jan Chramosta to fire in the decisive kick.
The defeat is a huge blow to Rangers, who were knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers by Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok, losing 3-2 on aggregate. The club’s massive rebuild under McInnes is struggling to get off the ground, and now their European campaign is over while still in August.
“I’m embarrassed with the performance,” McInnes admitted afterwards. “It wasn’t a good performance at any stretch of the imagination. I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses whatsoever. It wasn’t good enough.”
“I thought the opposition were better than us in most aspects of the game so we got what we deserved,” the Rangers manager added. “If we’d won it on penalties, we’d have taken it … but we’d have covered over the cracks, to be honest. I’m mortified by the performance.”
Brighton booked their place in the Conference League’s league phase with a comfortable 4-0 play-off victory over Tromsø at the Amex Stadium. Albion had work to do in Thursday evening’s second leg after failing to capitalise on 25 attempts at goal during last week’s goalless first-leg draw in Norway.
Fabian Hürzeler’s side were far more ruthless on home soil, with first-half finishes from Charalampos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper and Mats Wieffer putting them firmly in control of the tie. Olivier Boscagli added a deflected fourth late on to seal a place in Friday’s draw.
Motherwell were left to rue another costly red card as their European adventure ended with a 4-1 defeat away to Freiburg in the Conference League playoffs.
A week after Martin Moormann’s sending off paved the way for last season’s Europa League finalist to win 3-1 in the first leg, Well had Jake Girdwood-Reich dismissed just before the hour mark with the second leg in Germany still level at 1-1.
Emmanuel Longelo’s equaliser, following a blunder from home goalkeeper Mio Backhaus, cancelled out an early opener from Derry Scherhant. The visitors’ hopes of emerging unscathed from a formidable away trip were dashed as goals from Igor Matanovic, Cyriaque Irie and Keisuke Goto secured a 7-2 aggregate win.
Miguel Chaiwa scored a stoppage-time own goal as Hibernian suffered Conference League playoff despair for the second year running in a 3-2 home defeat by Gent.
Following a goalless first leg in Belgium last week, Hibs looked on course to make it to the league phase for the first time after second-half goals from Jason Kerr and Felix Passlack overturned a stunning first-half opener from Gent’s teenage forward, Josue Vergara.
But Christian Burgess equalised in the 84th minute for the visitors, before Hibs midfielder Chaiwa slid the ball into his own net in stoppage time. That confirmed another agonising European exit after a 4-3 aggregate defeat by Legia Warsaw at the same stage last season.
There was also late agony for Northern Ireland’s Larne, who let a two-goal aggregate lead slip in the last 10 minutes at home to Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps. Leading 2-0 from the first leg, Larne kept the visitors at bay until the 82nd minute, but Kike Gómez and Manu Toledano struck in quick succession to level the tie at 2-2 overall.
Montel Gibson was sent off for the hosts in the 87th minute, and although Larne came close to taking the tie to a penalty shootout, Toledano scored a spot-kick in the 121st minute to seal their fate. Shamrock Rovers also missed out on the Conference League’s main phase as they lost 1-0 at Finnish side KuPS to seal a 2-1 aggregate loss.
