RANGERS PAID THE price for sloppy defending as they let slip an early Europa League lead to lose 2-1 to Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland.
Derek McInnes’ first European tie as Gers boss got off to a dream start in the first leg of the third qualifier when home defender Guilherme Montoia turned a Tuur Rommens cross into his own net after just four minutes.
However, Kajetan Szmyt levelled in the 13th minute with a preventable goal to rattle the Light Blues then added a second eight minutes later after more defensive slackness from the visitors.
McInnes brought on Cammy Devlin, Nico Raskin, and Findlay Curtis for the start of the second half and the visitors dominated the ball but could not find a way to a leveller, with Curtis crashing a shot off the post in added time, and they will have to turn the tie around at Ibrox next week.
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Daisuke Yokota, the winger signed from Hannover, made his debut and he had a few touches before the visitors found themselves ahead early.
Left-back Rommens combined with midfielder Mohamed Diomande down the left and his delivery across the box was missed by striker Youssef Chermiti – but the unfortunate Guilherme Montoia failed to shift his legs and the ball rebounded off him from six yards out and slid across the line.
In the 10th minute Chermiti tested Jagiellonia keeper Slawomir Abramowicz with a long-distance drive and it all looked positive for the Govan men.
However, the Gers’ advantage was negated when Szmyt, with no direct danger imminent, curled the ball towards goal from the edge of the box and it sped all the way through and in at the far post.
There was more Rangers woe when midfielder Thelo Aasgaard’s flick at the edge of the home side’s penalty area was cut out to spark a swift counter.
When Nik Prelec’s cross came into the box, Gers defender Emmanuel Fernandez slipped in front of goal, allowing Jesus Imaz a shot on goal which Gers keeper Ivor Pandur parried but Szmyt reacted first to fire in his second.
In the 37th minute more poor defending, this time by Dujon Sterling in giving the ball away, saw Rodrigo Conceicao race clear but he slashed a shot against the side-netting with options inside. Prelec had an effort parried to safety by Pandur, who made another save from Norbert Wojtuszek just before half-time.
McInnes made three changes at the break with Devlin, Raskin, and Curtis on for Dan Neil, Tochi Chukwuani, and Yokota and the tide changed.
Devlin was set up by Diomande in the 59th minute but was crowded out, before Curtis knocked a Raskin delivery inches wide.
Moments later, as Rangers kept up the pressure, Devlin’s shot from 20 yards was tipped over by Abramowicz but the corner proved fruitless and then, and in the 68th minute, Imaz missed the target from 12 yards at the other end.
Abramowicz saved a Curtis shot and the Gers substitute volleyed a shot against the post amid other near misses in a strong finish.
Later, Hearts endured a predictably bruising evening in Lisbon as their hopes of progressing to the Europa League were all but ended by a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Benfica.
After a largely demoralising summer since being pipped to the Premiership title by Celtic in May, 1,300 embattled Jambos travelled to the Portuguese capital for one of their most formidable-looking fixtures in living memory braced for a fourth consecutive defeat under new boss Wouter Vrancken.
That was exactly what transpired as Marco Silva’s Benfica opened the scoring in the third minute, led by three at the break, and then added another three in the second half to remove all sense of jeopardy from next Thursday’s second leg at Tynecastle.
While the Portuguese giants are on course to face the losers of the Champions League tie between Aarhus and Sabah Baku in the Europa League play-off round, Hearts are staring at a likely Conference League play-off against Rapid Vienna, who lead Paide 4-1 after the first leg in Estonia.
Vrancken arrived from Belgian club Sint-Truiden in June with a reputation for playing front-foot football and he stuck to his principles by naming an ultra-attacking line-up with no obvious intention of trying to keep things tight.
Benfica swiftly set about picking holes in Hearts’ set-up, signalling their intent in the second minute when Gianluca Prestianni’s shot from the edge of the box was pushed away by Beau Reus.
The deadlock was broken a minute later when Rafa Silva slotted home after Leandro Barreiro burst on to Alexander Bah’s pass and cut the ball back from the right.
Hearts almost mustered a swift response but Claudio Braga headed wide from Calvin Miller’s cross.
Benfica continued to pepper the visitors’ goal though as Reus made three impressive saves – two from Barreiro and one from Prestianni – before the visitors doubled their lead in the 23rd minute.
Tomas Araujo did the damage, heading home Georgiy Sudakov’s corner as Hearts’ woes defending set-pieces this season continued.
The visitors should have pulled one back in the 34th minute when Laurent Mendy headed Blair Spittal’s free-kick against the crossbar and Landry Kabore was unable to knock the rebound into an empty net.
Mendy effectively gifted Benfica their third when he conceded a penalty in the 41st minute by needlessly tugging Priestianni’s shirt as he ran into the box. Vangelis Pavlidis sent his spot-kick straight down the middle and into the net.
Vrancken made some changes – both in personnel and shape – for the start of the second half but Prestianni curled in Benfica’s fourth from just inside the box after a loose pass from substitute Tom Renaud in the 58th minute.
Renaud redeemed himself in the 72nd minute by driving home a low angled shot to finish off a lovely build-up and give the travelling support some cause for cheer.
Following a brief period of positivity for the Edinburgh side, Benfica struck again in the 87th minute when sub Jhon Duran blasted home from Andreas Schjelderup’s cutback. And Schjelderup notched their sixth with a stoppage-penalty after Oisin McEntee handled.
Elsewhere, in Conference League qualifying, Owen Elding and Warren O’Hora scored as Hibernian will take a valuable lead to North Macedonia for the second leg of their third round clash after overcoming Shkendija 2-1.
Hibs had gone in front in the 73rd minute through Elding, only for the visitors to level less than three minutes later courtesy of Marko Gjorgjievski.
However, O’Hora notched a 90th-minute winner when he bundled in a Jordan Obita corner to leave Hibs in a good position to reach the competition’s play-off round when they make the trip to Skopje for the second leg.
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Rangers lose to Jagiellonia Bialystok, Hearts endure Benfica rout, Irish duo fire Hibs to victory
LAST UPDATE | 6 Aug
RANGERS PAID THE price for sloppy defending as they let slip an early Europa League lead to lose 2-1 to Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland.
Derek McInnes’ first European tie as Gers boss got off to a dream start in the first leg of the third qualifier when home defender Guilherme Montoia turned a Tuur Rommens cross into his own net after just four minutes.
However, Kajetan Szmyt levelled in the 13th minute with a preventable goal to rattle the Light Blues then added a second eight minutes later after more defensive slackness from the visitors.
McInnes brought on Cammy Devlin, Nico Raskin, and Findlay Curtis for the start of the second half and the visitors dominated the ball but could not find a way to a leveller, with Curtis crashing a shot off the post in added time, and they will have to turn the tie around at Ibrox next week.
Daisuke Yokota, the winger signed from Hannover, made his debut and he had a few touches before the visitors found themselves ahead early.
Left-back Rommens combined with midfielder Mohamed Diomande down the left and his delivery across the box was missed by striker Youssef Chermiti – but the unfortunate Guilherme Montoia failed to shift his legs and the ball rebounded off him from six yards out and slid across the line.
In the 10th minute Chermiti tested Jagiellonia keeper Slawomir Abramowicz with a long-distance drive and it all looked positive for the Govan men.
However, the Gers’ advantage was negated when Szmyt, with no direct danger imminent, curled the ball towards goal from the edge of the box and it sped all the way through and in at the far post.
There was more Rangers woe when midfielder Thelo Aasgaard’s flick at the edge of the home side’s penalty area was cut out to spark a swift counter.
When Nik Prelec’s cross came into the box, Gers defender Emmanuel Fernandez slipped in front of goal, allowing Jesus Imaz a shot on goal which Gers keeper Ivor Pandur parried but Szmyt reacted first to fire in his second.
In the 37th minute more poor defending, this time by Dujon Sterling in giving the ball away, saw Rodrigo Conceicao race clear but he slashed a shot against the side-netting with options inside. Prelec had an effort parried to safety by Pandur, who made another save from Norbert Wojtuszek just before half-time.
McInnes made three changes at the break with Devlin, Raskin, and Curtis on for Dan Neil, Tochi Chukwuani, and Yokota and the tide changed.
Devlin was set up by Diomande in the 59th minute but was crowded out, before Curtis knocked a Raskin delivery inches wide.
Moments later, as Rangers kept up the pressure, Devlin’s shot from 20 yards was tipped over by Abramowicz but the corner proved fruitless and then, and in the 68th minute, Imaz missed the target from 12 yards at the other end.
Abramowicz saved a Curtis shot and the Gers substitute volleyed a shot against the post amid other near misses in a strong finish.
Later, Hearts endured a predictably bruising evening in Lisbon as their hopes of progressing to the Europa League were all but ended by a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Benfica.
After a largely demoralising summer since being pipped to the Premiership title by Celtic in May, 1,300 embattled Jambos travelled to the Portuguese capital for one of their most formidable-looking fixtures in living memory braced for a fourth consecutive defeat under new boss Wouter Vrancken.
That was exactly what transpired as Marco Silva’s Benfica opened the scoring in the third minute, led by three at the break, and then added another three in the second half to remove all sense of jeopardy from next Thursday’s second leg at Tynecastle.
While the Portuguese giants are on course to face the losers of the Champions League tie between Aarhus and Sabah Baku in the Europa League play-off round, Hearts are staring at a likely Conference League play-off against Rapid Vienna, who lead Paide 4-1 after the first leg in Estonia.
Vrancken arrived from Belgian club Sint-Truiden in June with a reputation for playing front-foot football and he stuck to his principles by naming an ultra-attacking line-up with no obvious intention of trying to keep things tight.
Benfica swiftly set about picking holes in Hearts’ set-up, signalling their intent in the second minute when Gianluca Prestianni’s shot from the edge of the box was pushed away by Beau Reus.
The deadlock was broken a minute later when Rafa Silva slotted home after Leandro Barreiro burst on to Alexander Bah’s pass and cut the ball back from the right.
Hearts almost mustered a swift response but Claudio Braga headed wide from Calvin Miller’s cross.
Benfica continued to pepper the visitors’ goal though as Reus made three impressive saves – two from Barreiro and one from Prestianni – before the visitors doubled their lead in the 23rd minute.
Tomas Araujo did the damage, heading home Georgiy Sudakov’s corner as Hearts’ woes defending set-pieces this season continued.
The visitors should have pulled one back in the 34th minute when Laurent Mendy headed Blair Spittal’s free-kick against the crossbar and Landry Kabore was unable to knock the rebound into an empty net.
Mendy effectively gifted Benfica their third when he conceded a penalty in the 41st minute by needlessly tugging Priestianni’s shirt as he ran into the box. Vangelis Pavlidis sent his spot-kick straight down the middle and into the net.
Vrancken made some changes – both in personnel and shape – for the start of the second half but Prestianni curled in Benfica’s fourth from just inside the box after a loose pass from substitute Tom Renaud in the 58th minute.
Renaud redeemed himself in the 72nd minute by driving home a low angled shot to finish off a lovely build-up and give the travelling support some cause for cheer.
Following a brief period of positivity for the Edinburgh side, Benfica struck again in the 87th minute when sub Jhon Duran blasted home from Andreas Schjelderup’s cutback. And Schjelderup notched their sixth with a stoppage-penalty after Oisin McEntee handled.
Elsewhere, in Conference League qualifying, Owen Elding and Warren O’Hora scored as Hibernian will take a valuable lead to North Macedonia for the second leg of their third round clash after overcoming Shkendija 2-1.
Hibs had gone in front in the 73rd minute through Elding, only for the visitors to level less than three minutes later courtesy of Marko Gjorgjievski.
However, O’Hora notched a 90th-minute winner when he bundled in a Jordan Obita corner to leave Hibs in a good position to reach the competition’s play-off round when they make the trip to Skopje for the second leg.
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Europa League first-leg Qualifiers Rangers