Rangers manager Derek McInnes attributed his team's Europa League qualifying defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok to self-inflicted errors and a failure to maintain focus. The Scottish side succumbed to a 2-1 loss in the first leg of their third qualifying round tie in Poland, despite an early lead.
Rangers began brightly, taking the lead in the fourth minute when Guilherme Montoia put the ball into his own net following a cross from Tuur Rommens. However, the advantage was short-lived. Jagiellonia drew level in the 13th minute when Manny Fernandez directed Kajetan Szmyt's center past his own goalkeeper, Ivor Pandur. The Polish side then took the lead in the 21st minute, with Szmyt scoring after Pandur's initial save.
Despite a more spirited performance in the second half, Rangers could not find an equalizer, leaving them with a deficit to overcome in the return leg at Ibrox next Thursday.
"I just felt we beat ourselves, to be honest," McInnes stated after the match. "I thought we started the game really well with an element of control. The team we picked was to make sure that their rotations in midfield weren’t a problem for us — and they weren’t. We got off to a good start, a good bit of combination play, being patient with what we were trying to do and putting a bit of stress on their defender to defend the situation. And obviously, he scores an own goal and it’s a perfect start. But then we stopped doing what was working for us. We made two mistakes for the two goals."
McInnes, who has overseen significant squad changes since taking over, expressed concern over recurring defensive issues that reminded him of his previous managerial stint. "We need to be far more concentrated, far more focused, far more aggressive, far more talkative and organised to stop these types of things happening," he said. "We’ve seen a lot tonight of what I thought Rangers were last season. I thought they gave up too many chances and gave teams too much encouragement."
Defender Ross McCrorie echoed his manager's sentiments, acknowledging the defensive frailties exposed during the match. "It was a difficult one to take," McCrorie reflected. "We never quite got the defence right — you saw that in the first half. When they were counter-attacking, we were too vulnerable. They got a couple of chances and they managed to take them. We've got a few things that we need to work on but we’re still in the tie. There are a lot of new players within the squad but that’s not an excuse. We need to start winning games and putting to bed the small mistakes that are killing us. We need to look a bit more solid and I think the gaffer has spoken about that. We need to be better as a whole."
Rangers are set to host Hibernian on Sunday in their next domestic fixture, aiming to secure their first league win of the season before focusing on their European tie.