Sparta Prague 1 Rangers 0: Ten-man Light Blues suffer Europa League setback with defeat
GLEN KAMARA was booed by CHILDREN before being sent off as Rangers slumped to defeat in Prague.
David Hancko’s goal was enough to win it for Sparta on a night when Czech football was again shamed by race disgrace.
And when Kamara touched the ball for the first time after 45 seconds, the boos intensified – and that would be the case every time the Finn was in possession all night.
When he was booked shortly before the break, the Czech fans showed they were juvenile in every sense of the word by cheering the card loudly.
They barely laid a glove on Sparta and were well beaten by Hancko’s goal.
Home keeper Florin Nita had to clear after Ondrej Celustka hesitated under pressure from Fashion Sakala, but the first real save of the match came at the other end after nine minutes.
Martin Minchev’s run was met by Jakub Pesek’s shot – but McGregor’s threw out his left hand to turn the drive over the bar.
Sakala had a shot saved and Joe Aribo’s header from Borna Barisic’s cross was acrobatically headed away by Filip Panak as Rangers pressed, but Sparta were a threat.
He passed across goal to Pesek and it seemed he must score – but his drive rebounded from the bar.
It was a big let-off for Rangers and they almost took immediate advantage of the escape.
Balogun’s header was saved by home keeper Nita and Sakala poked in the rebound – but the Zambian was flagged offside.
Rangers again had McGregor to thank for staying in the game when Adam Hlozek took advantage of slack defending to put Haraslin through on goal.
He turned inside Tavernier on to his left foot – but McGregor blocked his drive with his foot.
Steven Gerrard clearly knew his side needed a spark if they were going to rescue the game and he brought Morelos on after 65 minutes, with the ineffective Kemar Roofe going off.
But a long-range Hagi drive – easily saved by his fellow countryman Nita – was all they could muster to threaten Sparta’s goal.
And their diminishing prospects of salvaging anything from the game were dealt a further blow when Kamara caught Sacek late and was sent off by the Turkish referee.
In fact it was Sparta who came closest to scoring, Sacek firing wide from Hancko’s drive in stoppage time.
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But the single goal was enough to leave Rangers firmly rooted to the bottom of the group.