Derek McInnes Under Pressure: How Bad Is the Rangers Crisis After European Exit?
Rangers are out of Europe entirely for the first time in nine years, and Derek McInnes' start to life at Ibrox has gone from bad to worse.
A 1-1 draw away to Jablonec on Thursday night meant the Conference League play-off finished 1-1 on aggregate, sending the tie to extra time and then penalties.
Findlay Curtis and James Penrice both missed from the spot, and Jan Chramosta converted the winning kick to send the Czech side through 4-3 on penalties.
It means Rangers will have no European football beyond August for the first time since a first-round Europa League exit to Luxembourg's Progres Niederkorn in 2017 - a huge financial and reputational blow for a club that expects to be playing continental football deep into the winter.
Having already been dumped out of the Europa League by Jagiellonia Bialystok earlier this month, this is now the second European exit of McInnes' short reign, and it comes with his side still searching for their first league win of the season.
How Rangers Blew It in Jablonec
Rangers arrived in the Czech Republic with a 1-0 lead from the first leg at Ibrox and looked to be coasting through an underwhelming opening half in which Lamin Jawo missed a good chance to settle the tie.
McInnes made three changes at the break, bringing on Curtis, Lawrence Shankland and Connor Barron, but it was Jablonec who kept creating the better chances.
Vakhtang Tchanturishvili's low finish with 20 minutes left levelled the tie on aggregate and forced extra time.
Jablonec continued to have the better of the additional 30 minutes, and when the shootout arrived, Rangers led early only for Curtis and Penrice to miss their final two kicks and hand Jablonec the tie.
A Second European Failure Compounds the Crisis
McInnes was appointed in the summer with a reputation for organisation and steadiness, but three defeats and a draw from his opening four competitive games had already made this the worst start by any permanent Rangers manager.
A 5-1 thrashing of holders St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup last-16 - James Penrice scoring twice on debut - gave McInnes his first win and set up a quarter-final against Celtic, offering some relief after the Jagiellonia defeat.
But dropping out of a second European competition in a fortnight, and to a side that finished fifth in the Czech top flight last season, undoes much of the goodwill that win generated.
Rangers sit ninth in the Scottish Premiership with a single point from their first two league games, already five points behind leaders Celtic.
What's Next for McInnes
There is no time to dwell on the result. Rangers travel to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, before a League Cup quarter-final against Celtic and league games against Falkirk and Motherwell to come in September.
Domestic football is now all Rangers have left to play for this season, and after two damaging European exits, McInnes needs a result at Pittodrie and beyond to stop the pressure building further.
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