James Tavernier insists Rangers didn’t give up against Liverpool and issues apology after heavy defeat
By Kwame Boakye
Rangers captain James Tavernier is adamant his side didn’t chuck in the towel in the wake of their humiliating 7-1 defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday.
The Glasgow giants’ hopes of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League were left in tatters after the heavy loss, the Light Blues did take the lead through Scott Arfield in the first half, but Roberto Firmino’s header ensured the scores were level going into half-time.
However, a second for Firmino coupled with one from Darwin Nunez, a hat-trick from Mohamed Salah and one from Harvey Elliot left Rangers bottom of the group with no points on the board.
Due to a random drug test after Tavernier was unable to conduct his normal media duties after the game, but has now apologised to the fans.
He said, as quoted by Football Scotland: “We can only apologise, we never want to lose by that kind of scoreline to anybody. We worked so hard to get to this point but to concede seven at home in front of your fans is never good enough.
“We can take some positives out of the first 45 minutes but it is the Champions League, we are proud to be competing with these teams but we have to look at the things we have done wrong to rectify it going forward.
“I’d never once look at any team-mate in my team and say they would chuck in the towel.
“Liverpool made the three substitutions with Jota, Salah and Thiago, who are world class players and they caught us trying to play football in the wrong areas.
“You never want to lose a game, and you certainly never want to lose a game by that margin.
“We are always trying to do the positive thing and the right thing is to try and play our game the way we can but there is risk to that and they capitalised on it. We will learn from it and it’ll only make us stronger.”
Salvage
The humiliating defeat to Liverpool was inexcusable, there is an undeniable gulf in quality between the two clubs but there can be no defence for the poor defensive display and second-half capitulation.
However, with two games remaining they still have the opportunity to salvage something from this disastrous campaign, third spot and with it a place in the Europa League.
Whilst a place at the top table of European football may be beyond Rangers at this moment in time, there is no doubt they are more than capable of holding their own in Europe’s secondary competition.
During their run to last season’s final Rangers beat the likes of Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig and only lost out to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties.
The Gers are just three points behind Ajax with Napoli away and the Dutch champions still to come to Ibrox, and if they can sneak into the Europa League it will go some way to rescuing what until now has been a disastrous continental campaign.
In other Rangers news, Jim White has shared a £380,000-a-week verdict on Ibrox.