It may be disguised behind a romantic name and a loving nod to nostalgia. But the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium is a slaughterhouse of a venue.
And for reasons only known to himself, Giovanni van Bronckhorst walked into it last night like an unsuspecting lamb. A man who has experienced football at its highest and most punishing level, taking one of the biggest gambles of his illustrious career. That he left with nothing more severe than a three-goal beating might feel almost like a moral victory given what has been done to his team during this unrelenting trauma of a Champions League campaign.
He may even point to chances fluffed by Alfredo Morelos as proof he knew what he was doing all along. But this would be no more than deflection. Or a desperate distortion of the truth. The fact is, he arrived in the south of Italy needing a miracle. He left with another bloodied nose – dished out by the hand of God.
And yet, Van Bronckhorst can’t put this one down to the work of some higher force. It was much of the manager’s own doing. And it looked destined to end that way from the moment he released a starting line-up which required at least one double-take.
For some weeks now it has felt as if Van Bronckhorst has been throwing mud at the wall in the hope of seeing what sticks. And now here he was, in this of all places, taking his pin-the-tail on the donkey experimentation to a whole new level.
By handing starting places to Ridvan Yilmaz, James Sands, Scott Wright, Malik Tillman and Morelos, the man in charge wasn’t just throwing the dice. He was tossing the last scraps of his reputation onto a Neapolitan bonfire.
It seemed a ludicrously high-risk selection, especially given the tried and tested options sitting on his bench. An out-of-shape and demotivated Morelos picked before top scorer Antonio Colak. Tillman’s undoubted talent over Scott Arfield’s unquestionable workrate despite the American’s lethargy.
Comparative novice Sands keeping the streetwise experience of Steve Davis out of midfield. Wright suddenly trusted to run the right flank despite disappearing onto the fringes since being hooked at half-time on a dismal opening night against Ajax. And from nowhere, little Yilmaz pitched in at left-back ahead of Borna Barisic. This team sheet was either a stroke of genius. Or a suicide note.
It took less than 15 minutes for the answer to be revealed. By then Rangers were already two goals down and staring a massacre in the eye.
It didn’t help that Tillman was ambling around in the middle of the pitch when the Italians were darting into position to create the opener. By the time Giovanni Di Lorenzo had picked out Giovanni Simeone’s run, Rangers had been carved wide open. The striker took one touch to control it with his left boot, then one more to lash home with his right.
In an instant, colour was draining from van Bronckhorst’s face all over again. Five minutes later Simeone was celebrating his second after planting a header beyond Allan McGregor.
Whatever strategy Van Bronckhorst had arrived with, it was being obliterated in front of his eyes. Yet he did nothing more than hope it might somehow correct itself in the face of an onslaught.
Yes Rangers made it to half-time without any further damage. But they were being toyed with by now and very few of them seemed even remotely embarrassed at being so obviously outclassed, far less inclined to do anything meaningful about it.
When a chance did present itself out of nothing, seconds before half-time, Morelos was too sluggish to make the most of it and, under pressure, his shot was dealt with comfortably. Van Bronckhorst finally reacted during the interval by switching to a back five and telling Wright to stay inside. Again.
Sands, sent back to stiffen up the defence, was left for dead as Simeone raced through in search of a hat-trick. The striker’s lob beat McGregor but bounced wide of his empty net. Seconds later the keeper denied him with a trademark save at his near post.
Two more chances came and went without Morelos taking either. His failure to get a toe on Yilmaz’s cross a yard from goal summed up his contribution. It was no surprise when he was replaced by Colak soon after with Arfield taking over from Tillman.
Rangers made a fist of it for a while in the second half. But never enough to make the Italians feel the need to go back up through the gears with any real urgency.
When Leo Ostigard scored with a thumping free header 10 minutes from time their job was complete. For van Bronckhorst, it does feel as if his task is all becoming way too much like hard work.
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