Rangers’ Europa League defeat at the hands of Benfica was welcomed with frustration and understanding rather than rage or despair.Among the 50,000 fans who fled Ibrox into the Glasgow downpour, there was a sense of pride in the efforts made by players in a squad sorely affected by injury.Rangers’ elimination from the Europa League is a positive outcome rather than a negative one, despite their best efforts.
Had Rangers made it past the Portuguese giants, a welcome bonus of £1.8m in prize money would have been received as well as another couple of million made from selling out a packed home ground.
Gers boss Philippe Clement might claim to want to win everything but he is also a realist.
Take Thursday night as an example.
He started with Scott Wright and had Rabbi Matondo and Ross McCausland on the bench knowing that the latter had struggled in training.
The reason why he was on the bench was in case the game went into extra-time because Clement knew that Matondo had little more than half an hour in his legs.
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