Rangers’ Champions League Group Stage rivals Ajax succumb to a defeat to Playoff opponents PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie – leaving Ibrox fans scratching their heads.
The Gers overcome Ruud van Nistelrooy’s PSV side in a two-legged Playoff at the beginning of the season to reach the Group Stages for the first time in 12 years.
The Dutch side are strewn with talent and for many are the favourites to lift the Dutch flight this season, but Rangers won courtesy of a 2-2 draw at Ibrox and a famous 1-0 win away in the Netherlands.
But the reward for beating PSV Eindhoven was drawing Dutch rivals Ajax in the Champions League group stages, with the Ibrox side outclassed in both meetings.
The Gers were obliterated in Amsterdam, with Ajax running out 4-0 winners, before the Dutch club won the final match day 3-1 at Ibrox to hand Rangers the record of being the competition’s worst-ever side.
Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was insistent that the Ibrox side “can’t compete” with Ajax and those comments take on a new dimension given the result against PSV.
PSV dump Ajax as Rangers Champions League rivals meet
PSV ran out 2-1 winners at the Johan Cruyff Arena to heap the pressure on Alfred Schreuder and go top of the Eredivisie.
Luuk de Jong had PSV in front midway through the first half, with Erick Gutterez doubling the lead five minutes after the restart.
Ajax would then haul one back through Lorenzo Lucca but it was too little too late as PSV Eindhoven took all three points.
Ajax have won the last three Dutch top flight championships with PSV Eindhoven the last team to stop them in 2018; they have a very good chance of doing so again.
But whilst the biggest teams in the Netherlands battle it out for supremacy this season, the Rangers support will be scratching their heads.
If the club was good enough to compete with PSV, then why couldn’t they lay a glove on Ajax?
Meanwhile, one Rangers star has been gutted by fans for his role in a St Johnstone goal.