Italians heap more misery on Rangers' nightmare campaign: S.S.C. Napoli 3-0 Rangers
Struggling for goals with zero points on the board, Rangers travelled to Naples to face Europe’s in-form team – Napoli, a team who have won their last 11 games.
With no away fans in the stadium, the Rangers players had no one to turn to as they looked for inspiration to get them through this daunting task at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
After 10 minutes played it was evident that Napoli were getting the better of Rangers. Kim min-Jae was wrestling Alfredo Morelos off the ball with ease and Ryan Kent couldn’t find a way around Giovanni Di Lorenzo. And a minute later, Napoli opened the scoring, Di Lorenzo managed to find Giovanni Simeone in the box, who volleyed the ball past Allan McGregor.
A common theme for Rangers in the Champions League so far this season has been conceding goals within quick succession of one another. Prior to this match, Rangers had conceded two goals in five minutes, in three out of four of their group stage matches so far – this is a statistic they added to that evening. It was Marco Rui’s turn to find Simeone in the box and his cross was headed home double Napoli’s advantage after 16 minutes.
Rangers struggled to apply any pressure on the hosts, who were battering Allan McGregor’s goal. Tanguy Ndombele came close to a third with his long-range shot crashing off the crossbar, however, it remained 2-0 as the sides entered the break.
Showing a bit more fight, Rangers produced a few chances in the second half – efforts from Ben Davies and Malik Tillman were comfortable for goalkeeper Alex Meret. It was Ridvan Yilmaz who had Napoli’s defence flustered as his cross left Alfredo Morelos with an empty net to tap the ball into, but he couldn’t find the right connection.
Leo Ostigard would rub salt in Rangers’ wound by adding a third in the 80th minute. The Norwegian defender headed home a Giacomo Raspadori corner to cap off an easy win for his side.
With zero points on the board for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, Rangers have the small task of winning by five or more goals against Ajax next Tuesday if they are looking to secure European football after Christmas.