Richard Foster feels Rangers showed ‘worrying’ signs with their defending against Braga on Thursday, as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side lacked ideas to stop Abel Ruiz from scoring.
Speaking on BBC Sportsound, the former Ibrox defender took issue with how the Glasgow side fell behind on 40 minutes. Silky play from Braga saw Iuri Medeiros get in behind Calvin Bassey on the right-wing. Leon Balogun then failed to clear as Ruiz beat Allan McGregor.
Rangers had the first opening to score at the Estadio Municipal de Braga, but Ryan Kent’s poor touch was costly. Fashion Sakala then could not get enough on the rebound, before Os Arcebispos grew into the Europa League quarter-final first-leg and gained some control.
Andre Horta thought he broke the deadlock soon after Ricardo Horta hit the post. But the VAR came to the Gers’ rescue after a foul on Ryan Jack in the build-up. Yet it only delayed Braga taking the lead, with Ruiz thundering past a helpless McGregor in the Rangers net.
Rangers defending ‘worrying’ Richard Foster, ‘didn’t know what to do’ vs Braga
Rangers have now failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last four games across all competitions. They also only won one of those fixtures, edging Dundee 2-1 with an 86th-minute Connor Goldson effort. But Goldson could not help Balogun away in Portugal.
Van Bronckhorst even took Balogun off as part of a triple change on 62 minutes in search of an equaliser. But the goal would not come, with Goldson hitting the post from a corner their closest effort. Now, Rangers must come from behind next Thursday to edge Braga.
Foster will likely hope his former side work on their defending before Rangers host Braga. Their efforts to prevent Ruiz left a lot to the imagination, as he felt they lacked any ideas.
“The goal was coming,” Foster stated. “The worrying thing is, Rangers didn’t know what to do to stop it. They stayed open and allowed Braga to feel their way into the game.”
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