'It wasn't even a free kick': Rangers captain bemoans costly red card

Rangers captain James Tavernier believes Jefte’s red card was a major factor in his side’s loss and Champions League exit to Dinamo Kyiv – and says referee Marco Guida made a huge mistake in sending the player off.

After a 1-1 draw in Poland last week, Rangers faced their Ukrainian opponents at Hampden in the second leg of their third qualifying round tie on Tuesday night with it ending in a 2-0 defeat.

A place in the play-off round against Red Bull Salzburg, with the opportunity to reach the group stages, awaited the winner and Rangers started strongly, creating chances in the first half.

After the break though, a controversial second yellow card for summer signing Jefte reduced Rangers to ten men and Kyiv went on to score twice against ten men and sink Rangers’ Champions League hopes.

Referee Guida showed the card after Jefte easily beat Oleksandr Karavaiev to a high ball. Tavernier says the match official believed the Rangers player had elbowed his opponent but that it entirely the wrong call.

“He gets up really early,” the Rangers captain said. “I thought it wasn’t even a free kick.

“He gets up early and there was no malice to what he was doing, just trying to win the ball. Obviously the decision goes against him and it’s a yellow card so VAR can’t intervene. It’s obviously a decision that went against us.

“It’s a 50/50 ball that’s going up in the air and he gets up early. I don’t know how much contact there is but it obviously makes a big difference.”

The defender insists the game turned on that moment and that the referee made things too difficult for his side.

“The decision changes the whole dynamics of the game,” Tavernier said. “Even with ten men we were still trying to push and get at them as much as we could but as the game’s getting on we’re pushing more and leaving opportunities for them. It just wasn’t meant to be.

“It’s one decision in the game that brings us to ten men and makes the game harder for ourselves. We thought we had a good chance to get to the next round.

“Especially first half we created opportunities but we could have been more clinical. But we kept asking the question and it’s obviously a tough one against 11 men.

“We always try to leave everything out there and it’s obviously just disappointing for all the lads that we couldn’t make it happen.”

The defeat means Rangers drop into the Europa League group stage instead of going on to the Champions League play-off but the team’s immediate attention has to turn to the Premier Sports Cup tie against St Johnstone on Saturday.

“We have to brush it off really quickly,” Tavernier added. “We’ve got a big game at the weekend.

“There’s no time to moan and we’ll look at the lessons we can take from it and go again.”