Michael Beale warns Rangers players about 'wastefulness' after win over Servette

Michael Beale watched Rangers earn a 2-1 first leg win over Servette in their Champions League third round qualifier but admitted his side were ‘wasteful’ in attack.

Early goals from James Tavernier and Cyriel Dessers had put Rangers in the driving seat at Ibrox but a penalty just before half time, scored by Chris Bedia, narrowed the gap.

Servette were reduced to ten men with more than half an hour to play but despite enjoying plenty of possession in the opposition half, Rangers couldn’t add to their advantage and the tie is very much in the balance ahead of the second leg on Tuesday.

Beale was frustrated by lack of further goalscoring but said his new-look attack was still settling in.

“I think what it does is it keeps our wits about us,” he said after the final whistle. “We know it will be difficult going to Geneva.

“It’s going to be a full house and we’ll see a different game like we always do in Europe.

“I wouldn’t never knock a win in the European competition because I know they’re so difficult to come by. I think as a team, it’s something I’ve said a lot as a Rangers manager, but now it’s just with new faces that we do a lot of good things.

“We create numerous opportunities. We have to be more decisive and I’ll forgive our forwards at the moment because they’re new coming into the club and it’s early in the season, but we keep creating chances like that, we have to take them if we want to put teams away.

“[At 2-0] we were in a great place. But after that I thought we were wasteful.

“Then comes the VAR decision for the penalty. I thought it was harsh but that’s the ruling.

“The second half, their keeper made a fantastic save from Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers and we had other moments again where we were wasteful on a night when we played well in my opinion for a long period of time.”

Despite wishing his side had been more clinical, Beale was pleased with the overall performance and he feels the summer signings will show more when they have had more time to gel as a team.

“We are not using it as an excuse but 13 players left and nine came in,” he said.

“Danilo has trained with his team-mates for four days and has had a pre-season which was all over the shop at Feyenoord.

“We are not the sum of our parts right now but I thought we had more forward running and more energy.

“I thought the front three were exciting and they will get better with each game.”