© EuroFootball.com
The crisis of defending champions Glasgow "Rangers" continues to deepen - on Sunday, the team coached by Alex McLeish lost to the "Hibernian" team in Edinburgh, and the eighth consecutive game without a victory improved the 132-year-old club's unsuccessful streak record.
2 - 1
18’ [1 - 0] Derek Riordan
25’ [2 - 0] Garry O`Connor
59’ [2 - 1] Barry Ferguson
90’ Barry Ferguson ("Rangers") sent off the field
Although "Rangers" have a decent chance of reaching the Champions League qualifiers, the club has already been eliminated from the Scottish League Cup, and in the country's championship, they are in fourth place and lagging far behind the leaders "Celtic" and "Hearts".
The encounter with "Hibernian" in the capital was an opportunity for the Glasgow team to reduce the gap from the opponent one position higher on the tournament table, but already in the first half, the hosts led with a score of 2-0: in the 18th minute, Ivan Sproule accurately passed the ball to Derek Riordan near the far post, who had only to score, and soon after the author of the goal, Gary O’Connor, marked with a penalty kick.
After playing almost an hour, "Rangers" managed to reduce the deficit with their first shot on goal - Barry Ferguson's shot was deflected off the opponents and confused goalkeeper Zbigniew Malkowski and entered the goal. Hamed Namouchi missed the chance to equalize shortly after, a penalty shot from D. Riordan flew wide, and I. Sproule's attempt was caught by goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus.
The guests failed to equalize the result, and the end of the match was further disrupted by B. Ferguson receiving a red card. After this defeat, "Rangers" continue to lag behind "Celtic", who also experienced failure, by 15 points, but the Glasgow club is already 11 points behind third-placed "Hibernian".
