Joe Ellis

Fri 18 March 2022 11:40, UK

Rangers advanced through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League last night despite losing 2-1 away at Red Star Belgrade.

The Serbian champions put up a valiant effort on home turf but they were unable to overturn the three-goal advantage the Light Blues held from their exceptional first-leg display.

Crvena Zvezda defender Aleksandar Dragovic though was in no mood to congratulate Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side as he suggested they were in fact lucky to qualify for the next stage.

“In my opinion, Rangers were lucky to qualify,” the Austrian said, as quoted by the Daily Record.

“It’s sad we didn’t make it through because we certainly had the chances to do that. We were unable to take all the opportunities we created.

“I thought our supporters were fantastic and we thank them for being the 12th man.

“We fought to the last second of the game. We were still trying to score the third goal in injury time even though we knew it was over. We did that for the fans.

“I think the players gave everything they could and credit to all the guys. We move on.”

Bitter

Keep on crying mate, Rangers do not care what you think.

Nothing mattered last night other than the result and even though the Light Blues were on the losing side, they were able to hold their aggregate lead to make it to the last eight.

Dragovic hasn’t done himself any favours with what he’s said and one would doubt that he’d be welcome at Ibrox any time soon.

The sheer cheek to suggest that a team who have scored four times over two legs of a game were lucky to win is unbelievable. They couldn’t score at all at Ibrox and only won the reverse fixture thanks to their ever-passionate home crowd.

van Bronckhorst and his players will look at what the 31-year-old has said and enjoy a long, rowdy laugh on the plane home and it will still bring a chuckle to the mouth many years down the line.

In other Rangers news, BT Sport pundits were highly critical of this Gers ace last night after a horror moment.