Blown away Phillipe Bormans admits Union Saint-Gilloise were hit with a Rangers hurricane to leave his side's Champions League dream in tatters.
The Belgian upstarts arrived in Glasgow full of belief but were outgunned by Gio van Bronckhorst 's side en route to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat. USG will now head to the Europa League, while Rangers eye a return to European football's top table after a 12-year absence after James Tavernier, Antonio Colak and Malik Tillman struck. They face Ruud van Nistelrooy's PSV next.
Speaking after the defeat, USG chief Bormans said: "Obviously we are disappointed, I think we have to be. We were close but we have to be honest too. It was deserved. They won, they started this match well from the first minute, with a bit of luck of course. If this first goal does not fall, we return to half-time at 0-0. But in the end, it's football, we have to stay correct. Today, we were under a pressure that we had never known. The speed of play was enormous. This team played in the Final of the Europa League a few months ago, it was seen.
"The first leg was also decided on details. We were the ones who showed what we are capable of. Tonight, we saw a team that has a budget that is much higher than ours. It was seen. Until the last moment, we fought. We were close."
And penalty sinner Siebe Van der Heyden admitted his side failed to cope with the Ibrox atmosphere on a night to forget. He added: "I tried to head the ball, missed it and unfortunately it came off my hand.
"We knew we couldn't make any individual mistakes because Rangers would punish them and that's exactly what happened. Organisationally, we were good in the game, but small individual mistakes are killing us. We were ready for Ibrox. But the atmosphere was incredible - you can't say anything else. But that shouldn't have been the decisive factor.
"And we missed a couple of chances too. If you don't convert them at this level, you get punished. Rangers are at a high level in Europe and we have taken them all the way. If you look at the bigger picture of where Union were two or three years ago, then we should be very proud."
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