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- Jagiellonia Bialystok 2-1 Rangers: Szmyt brace piles pressure on McInnes in Europa League
Jagiellonia Bialystok 2-1 Rangers: Szmyt brace piles pressure on McInnes in Europa League
Rangers have it all to do in the third qualifying round of the Europa League after losing 2-1 in the first leg to Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Derek McInnes' wait for a first win as Rangers boss goes on after his side lost 2-1 to Jagiellonia Bialystok in the first leg of the Europa League third-qualifying round.
Despite taking the lead early on thanks to an own goal from Guilherme Montoia, Kajetan Szmyt scored a brace to give Jagiellonia the advantage heading into next week's second leg at Ibrox.
Rangers were ahead after just four minutes at Chorten Arena as Tuur Rommens' low cross into the box was missed by Youssef Chermiti but inadvertently turned into his own net by Montoia.
However, Jagiellonia were in front after 21 minutes.
Szmyt's first goal came somewhat fortuitously as his cross took a slight deflection off Emmanuel Fernandez before finding the bottom-right corner, though his second came after he reacted fastest to a rebound as Jesus Imaz's initial effort from Nik Prelec's cross was parried into a dangerous area.
Jagiellonia pushed for a third before the break, but Rodrigo Conceicao opted to shoot from a narrow angle rather than square the ball, to the frustration of his team-mates and manager, while Prelec and Norbert Wojtuszek were kept out by Ivor Pandur.
McInnes made a triple change at half-time, but his side were almost 3-1 down shortly after the hour mark; Wojtuszek found Imaz in the middle with a cut-back, but the Spaniard's first-time effort was placed wide of the left post.
Rangers were on top in the closing stages, though struggled to create many clear-cut chances as their best opportunity came in stoppage time to Finlay Curtis, who could only hit the woodwork.
Deju vu for Rangers
Rangers would have hoped to avoid suffering the same fate they did under Russell Martin at this point last season, when they were in Champions League qualifying rather than the Europa League, but it has been a similar story under McInnes so far.
After battling to a draw in their Scottish Premiership opener against Dundee United, McInnes' side are now on the brink of being knocked out of the Europa League, as they were from the Champions League 12 months ago.
Debutant Daisuke Yokota was unable to make an impact for the Scottish outfit, while McInnes' decision to bench the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Djeidi Gassama and Nicolas Raskin backfired and will certainly be questioned.
Rangers face Hibernian at home in the league this weekend before the return leg against Jagiellonia, who will be brimming with confidence after this victory.











