Rangers supporters have criticised Steven Gerrard for not bringing on Leon Balogun prior to conceding at the death against Benfica on Thursday night.
With 15 minutes remaining in the Europa League Group D clash at the Estadio da Luz, the Gers were 3-1 up and had a man advantage due to Nicolas Otamendi’s earlier red card.
However, Rafa Silva brought the hosts back into the game before Darwin Nuñez snatched an unlikely draw with a 91st-minute equaliser.
Most supporters would have taken a point before the game and certainly after their side went 1-0 down with only a minute on the clock.
However, after taking advantage of the sending off to move into a two-goal lead, the Gers really should have returned to Glasgow with all three.
After the game, Gerrard bemoaned poor game management from his players [RangersTV]. There was no need for the full-backs, in particular, to be bombing forward when the result was hanging in the balance.
Many fans think the manager missed a trick too, though, in failing to bring on Leon Balogun to shore up the defence in the closing stages.
The centre-back was deployed for the final five minutes at Rugby Park on Sunday as the Gers went to a five-man defence to close out a 1-0 win.
However, despite Rangers being in a similarly precarious position in Portugal, Balogun went unused and Nuñez exploited space at the back before netting his injury-time equaliser.
Here’s a selection of reactions from social media:
https://twitter.com/Rangers4Me/status/1324625218246160384
