2026-08-28 08:47:33
Derek McInnes was left “embarrassed” by Rangers’ exit from the Conference League.
The Scottish giants won’t have European group stage football this season after losing 4-3 on penalties to Czech side Jablonec in Thursday’s (27.08.26) play-off second leg, following a 1-0 defeat on the night (the tie finished 1-1 on aggregate), and the coach was extremely disappointed with his team’s performance.
McInnes said: “I’m embarrassed with the performance.
“The only people who represented the club well tonight were my staff and the supporters who were outstanding, getting behind the team despite watching what we all watched.
“I’m not going to make any excuses. Yes there’s been a big turnover of players, yes we looked inexperienced at times but the responsibility is mine to make sure we’re better than what we served up tonight.
“We’re elite in everything we do in terms of preparation and the performance lacked in everything.”
McInnes felt that Rangers “deserved” their humiliating exit following a woeful performance that saw them muster just a single shot on target.
He said: “I can’t accept, and we shouldn’t accept, losing individual battles, duels, second balls, not winning enough tackles and just getting the momentum of the game going our way.
“I thought we looked young, inexperienced at times. We’re trying to make some signings to help with that side of it but we need to do so much more as a team.
“We got what we deserved. If we’d won on penalties we would have taken it, of course, but it would only have covered over the cracks.
“I’m mortified with the performance. I know you can lose games of football but we should have enough in the building to take care of that tonight.”
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