Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti was full of praise for the ‘incredible’ Rangers supporters while admitting that Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side had ‘no luck at all’ on their side during their 3-0 Champions League group-stage defeat at Ibrox, speaking to Sky and Mediaset.
That’s three defeats in a row, by an aggregate score of 11-0 no less.
But it wasn’t all bad on Wednesday night. With a rousing chorus of ‘God save the King’ still ringing in their ears, this was, until James Sands’ second half dismissal of course, the sort of ferocious, all-action performance we have become accustomed to seeing of Rangers in European competition.
Alfredo Morelos should have scored, Scott Arfield nearly did, and the eventual lopsided nature of the scoreline does not really paint an accurate picture of the proceedings on the blue side of Glasgow; Rangers much-improved from those humiliating four-goal shellackings at the hands of Ajax and Celtic.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers lose 3-0 against Napoli at Ibrox
“(Rangers) hadn’t played in the Champions League for 12 years. They were hurt from the last two games. There was a fear of this ferocious reaction from the start,” Spalletti admits; his Napoli side building on that 4-1 thumping of Liverpool last time out.
“We held up. They made the game more difficult with the continuous duels, but we never lost sight of what we wanted to do.
“The substance that the team had tonight is evident. They held up well to (Rangers) initial blaze; a spectacular atmosphere in a mythical stadium.
“The stadium is historic. The fans are incredible. The fans are so close to the pitch that we seemed to be inside a toaster. I saw a good opponent. Rangers played the game they had to do. They had no luck at all.”
The game turned just before the hour mark; Sands sent off for a second yellow card, an unfortunate end to a much-improved display from the opinion-splitting American. And while the returning Allan McGregor would save the resulting penalty (twice, if you count the re-take) the veteran shot-stopper was only delaying the inevitable.
Nonetheless, if Rangers can muster this sort of desire and aggression in the double-header with an out-of-sorts Liverpool, well perhaps Europa League football in the spring does not need to be the limit of their ambitions.
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