Giovanni van Bronckhorst has given his reaction to Rangers' defeat to Ajax and that unwanted 'worst ever' tag.
The Light Blues went down 3-1 on the night to end the Champions League campaign on zero points and have now landed the unwanted tag as the 'worst ever' group stage team. They also became the first British side to lose all six games in their section that ended with just two goals for and 22 against meaning they ended up with a -20 goal difference.
The home side went into this one with very, very slim hopes of finishing third and reaching the Europa League - but that would have required a win by five goals. That was quickly ended with the visitors flying out of the traps and scoring inside the first four minutes before adding a killer second on the half hour mark. James Tavernier scored a late penalty but their was still time for the visitors to knock home a third. Ajax's win gives them six points, all coming against Rangers. and European football after Christmas.
READ MORE: Rangers 1 Ajax 3 as Champions League campaign ends with unwanted record - 3 things we learned
Reacting to the defeat, the Dutchman told BT Sport : "Of course it is a disappointing result. I think in the last 5-10 minutes when you score to make it 2-1 you think you can get a point if you get the pressure on them and create chances. But it was very quick. We won the ball, lost it again and in four seconds we conceded at 3-1 but overall it was a difficult match.
"We tried to press them. You see the difference in energy levels. No game in the weekend and they were much fresher than us. To compete against Ajax we needed to have the pressure moments but were unable to create them and then lacked a little bit of energy to keep the pressing high.
"They had six days off. Their league is thinking about their players. They played the last game last week on Wednesday and come here really fresh. We played a game, we have some injuries and it was tough today. We tried but again these are teams who have been competing for several years at this level and it is our first year after 12.
"I mean helping. That is from the league. You asked me the difference today. They haven't had a game on the weekend, that is the difference. I didn't say we need help I just say they had a free weekend."
On the unwanted record of -20 goal difference and losing all six games, he added: "Those are facts. I cannot change the facts. We were pushing really hard to qualify for the Champions League. We achieved it this year but we struggled. We need to learn from it. Try to qualify again next year and obviously try to do better than this year.
"The level we face is there for everyone to see. We could cope in parts of the games but we haven't coped for 90 minutes throughout the whole campaign. It's not easy but it is something we need to learn. We need to make sure we are there for 90 minutes and have a chance to get results. In this campaign we lacked that."
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