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Rangers got off to a bright start before fading

At a glance

  • Djeidi Gassama heads Rangers into a sixth-minute lead with his eighth goal of the season

  • Teenage midfielder Rodrigo Mora pulls Porto level with a smart close-range finish

  • Francisco Moura taps into an empty net after a mistake by James Tavernier on his record-equalling 109th European appearance for Rangers

  • An Emmanuel Fernandez own goal makes it 3-1 before half-time as Porto secure a top-eight finish

Alasdair Lamont
BBC Sport Scotland at Estádio Do Dragão

Rangers' Europa League campaign ended in defeat by Porto who progress directly to the last 16 as a result of this comeback win.

It had all begun so well for Danny Rohl's side, who already knew there was no chance of progression, as Djeidi Gassama scored his sixth European goal of the season, heading in an excellent Findlay Curtis cross to give the visitors an early advantage.

Rohl had called on Rangers to play the role of "nasty guests" and if not nasty, they certainly proved awkward in the opening 25 minutes as they comfortably contained their illustrious hosts.

Unfortunately for the Scots, that good early work was undone by some costly slackness.

18-year-old homegrown talent Rodrigo Mora, after a brilliant turn away from Nico Raskin to begin the attack, slammed the ball beyond Jack Butland as it broke back to him off Jayden Meghoma.

Then James Tavernier got himself into a real muddle as he tried to shepherd the ball back to Butland, allowing Francisco Moura the easiest of finishes to put Porto ahead.

And before half-time it was three as Emmanuel Fernandez inadvertently showed his prowess from set pieces once again as he diverted the ball into his own net from a near-post corner.

Rangers never threatened to come back from that two-goal deficit, though nor did the scoreline ever look like becoming embarrassing.

Ultimately, the Europa League ends for Rangers as it began, with a defeat.

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Analysis: Deficiencies clear but Rangers still improving

This was not a performance that should knock the overall momentum of what Rohl has built at Rangers, but it did underline a couple of weaknesses the manager will be keen to address.

A persistent problem for Rangers has been a lack of goals and again, despite enjoying plenty of possession, good build-up play to get them into good positions, too often the attacks came to nothing.

Rohl wants at least one more attack-minded player in before the window closes and it was clear to see why.

Defensively, they let themselves down in a horror end to the first half, but generally they do look more assured in that department than earlier in the season.

Now attention turns back to far more important matters as they seek to win the three-horse race for the Premiership title.

What they said

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl: "It was a good game to watch, both teams tried something in possession and against the ball, after 20 minutes I felt we were in a good way.

"I compare this game to the Bergen [Brann] game and I see a massive, massive step forward. It's still not good enough, we know what we have to improve in the future, especially in this competition.

"In general, I'm still proud of the development, especially in Europe. I'm now fully focused on the league. We have a mission and for this, we have all our energy now."

What next for Rangers?

A massive league match away to Hibernian on Sunday lies ahead for Rangers (1400 GMT).

Key stats

  • Rangers have now lost six consecutive away European games (including qualifiers), their outright longest losing streak on the road in Europe.

  • Rangers shipped three first-half goals for only the second time in the Europa League (also three v Lyon in October 2024) and just the eighth time in major European competition.

  • Rangers have conceded 26 goals in European competition this season (including qualifiers), with Celtic in 2021-22 the only Scottish side to ship more in a single campaign (27).

  • Djeidi Gassama is just the third different French player to score more than once for a Scottish side in a Europa League campaign (Odsonne Edouard three times for Celtic and Marc-Antoine Fortuné also for Celtic) and the first to do so for Rangers.

  • James Tavernier made his 70th appearance in major European competition for Rangers, with only goalkeeper Allan McGregor making more for the club (78), while David Narey (76 for Dundee United) and Callum McGregor (72 for Celtic) are the only outfield players to make more appearances for a single Scottish side in major European football than Tavernier.

Player of the match

Pepê
7.37
11 Pepê
7.37
5 J. Bednarek
7.35
7 William
7.35
4 J. Kiwior
7.20
86 Rodrigo Mora
7.19
8 V. Froholdt
7.15
9 Samu Aghehowa
7.11
20 Alberto Costa
7.10
22 A. Varela
6.95
74 Francisco Moura
6.79
27 D. Gül
6.71
99 Diogo Costa
6.55
17 Borja Sainz
6.53
52 Martim Fernandes
6.39
10 Gabri Veiga
6.39
13 P. Rosario
6.33
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After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.