"I’m embarrassed with the performance," Derek McInnes said after Rangers went out of the Conference League on penalties to FK Jablonec at the Stadion Strelnice. Rangers had led 1-0 from the first leg before V. Tchanturishvili levelled the tie in the 73rd minute, and the shoot-out ended 4-3 after Findlay Curtis and James Penrice missed the final two penalties.

McInnes' reaction after the shoot-out

McInnes did not lean on the missed penalties as the main story. Speaking after the defeat, he said: "I'm not going to make any excuses. Yes there's been a big turnover of players, yes we looked inexperienced at times but the responsibility is mine to make sure we're better than what we served up tonight."

He followed that with a harder judgment on the performance itself: "I can't accept, and we shouldn't accept, losing individual battles, duels, second balls, not winning enough tackles and just getting the momentum of the game going our way."

That is where the night sits. Rangers had just over 46% possession over 120 minutes, managed only one shot on target and won fewer than 70% of their 16 tackles. A team that starts a European tie with a first-leg lead should be doing more than hanging on until penalties.

Rangers' performance before the penalties

The shoot-out did not come from nowhere. Rangers had taken a 1-0 lead into the second leg, but Jablonec stayed in the tie and forced a finish that Rangers never really controlled.

McInnes said, "It wasn’t a good performance at any stretch of the imagination. Then you think you might just get through." That fits the numbers cleanly enough: one shot on target over 120 minutes, less than 46% of the ball and a long stretch in which Jablonec looked more settled in the duels.

Rangers are also still bedding in a revamped squad, with McInnes having signed 12 players since arriving from Hearts in the summer. That does not erase what happened in the Stadion Strelnice, but it does explain why he kept returning to basics rather than hiding behind the shoot-out itself.

The exit leaves Rangers with a sharp lesson, and McInnes made sure it landed on his own shoulders rather than on Curtis or Penrice. They are out of Europe after the defeat in the Czech Republic, and the performance was the part he chose to put front and centre.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 5 outlets. How we work →