Glasgow Rangers‘ grim return to life in the Champions League continued on Wednesday evening, as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s facet suffered a humiliating 7-1 defeat at Ibrox to make sure their wait to safe a bunch stage level goes on.
Facing a Liverpool facet who’re enduring their very own malaise at current – with the Reds having slipped to tenth within the Premier League following their latest loss to rivals Arsenal – the Old Firm giants had initially made a vigorous begin to proceedings, with Scott Arfield netting his facet’s first aim within the competitors for over a decade contained in the first-half.
Having been stage heading on the break following Roberto Firmino’s header, the Gers had been nonetheless firmly within the recreation at that stage, though proceeded to endure an nearly unforgivable second-half capitulation in opposition to Jurgen Klopp’s relentless facet.
Substitute Mohamed Salah returned to his typical medical self having been hooked after 69 minutes in opposition to the Gunners on the weekend, coming off the bench to attain the fastest-ever hat-trick within the competitors’s historical past, doing so in simply over six minutes.
Amid the Egyptian’s particular person brilliance, that beautiful show had additionally laid naked the fragility of the house facet’s shaky backline, with the Scottish Premiership facet having now shipped 16 targets in simply 4 video games in Europe to this point this time period.
A significant villain on the night time was arguably that of Croatia worldwide, Borna Barisic, with the towering left-back having merely wilted on the massive stage, having been tortured by the aforementioned Salah in that dismal second interval.
The 29-year-old had appeared “miles off it” in accordance with author James Black, notably permitting the previous Roma man far an excessive amount of time inside the realm within the build-up to the guests’ fourth aim on the night time, having additionally performed striker Darwin Nunez onside for the Merseysiders’ third.
The 6 foot 1 full-back once more didn’t adequately shut down Salah because the 30-year-old wrapped up his treble late on, with the struggling defender having been ‘all at sea’ in accordance with the Scotsman’s Andrew Smith.
The £5.4m-rated man – who had been linked with a departure from Glasgow over the summer season – notably misplaced possession 12 instances from his 70 touches, whereas additionally successful only one deal with and failing to make a single interception.
Such a grim efficiency unsurprisingly noticed the 27-cap dud file a measly 5.9 match ranking, as per SofaScore, with that the joint-third worst ranking of any of the Gers starters on the night time, showcasing simply what a legal responsibility he was up in opposition to such elite opposition.
With £5m, summer season signing Ridvan Yilmaz ready within the wings to earn a extra distinguished function within the facet on the left of the defence, with the Turkish defender having made simply 4 appearances to date, it may properly be time for Barisic to make means forward of Sunday’s conflict away at Motherwell.
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