Where Rangers go from here in a Group A that also features Napoli and Liverpool may not be pretty. This was an ugly display featuring a defence that failed to defend and a sieve-like midfield that was an open invitation for Ajax to execute their clever pass-and-move play.
At the break the Dutch champions had enjoyed 74% of the possession. If there was a number to rate the invention of their opponents then zero would not have been unfair on Rangers, whose manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, seemed to have instructed them to sit as far back as possible and hope that they could somehow conjure a goal.
