McInnes ’embarrassed’ after Rangers follow Celtic’s debacle and lose in Conference League playoffs

LIBEREC, Czech Republic (AP) — Two days after Celtic’s embarrassing elimination in Champions League qualifying, Scottish rival Rangers followed suit by falling to unheralded Czech team Jablonec in the Conference League playoffs.

Rangers took a 1-0 lead from the first leg but lost the return match by the same score and eventually was eliminated 4-3 in the penalty shootout, leaving the Glasgow club out of Europe beyond August for the first time since 2017.

“So embarrassed with it. We should be winning this tie, there’s no two ways about it,” Rangers manager Derek McInnes said. “I’m embarrassed at the fact that we should be performing a lot better. It’s not easy for me to say that, because I’m here to help my players. I want my players to be so much better than they were tonight.”

McInnes, in his first season with Rangers, took responsibility for the team’s debacle, which came after it was eliminated by Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok in Europa League qualifying.

“The best players can miss penalty kicks but we had enough time to get through the tie,” he said. “The responsibility is shared tonight, but I’m responsible for bringing a better performance than what we showed tonight. And for that I’m embarrassed. I so disappointed that we’ve been emptied out of Europe.”

A couple of nights earlier, Celtic led LASK 4-0 on aggregate after a half hour of the second leg in Austria, but five unanswered goals — the fifth and decisive one coming in extra time — meant that for two straight years the Scottish title holder wasted clear chances to play on the lucrative biggest stage of European club soccer.

Last year, Celtic could not score in either leg against Kairat Almaty and, after a pair of scoreless draws, went out in a penalty shootout in Kazakhstan.

Rangers didn’t get past the league phase of the Europa League last season. In 2017, the last time it didn’t advance past the qualifying rounds in Europe, it lost 2-1 on aggregate to Luxembourg’s Progres Niederkorn in the first round of qualifying for the Europa League.

“It’s all about trying to work towards better performances and trying to win games of football,” McInnes said. “But we were way off, we have to be totally honest with that.”

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here