Steven Gerrard reacts as Rangers follow Celtic out of the Champions League

Steven Gerrard says ‘fear and panic’ cost Rangers as they crashed out of the Champions League after losing to 10-man Malmo at a full Ibrox.

The Scottish champions looked well placed to overcome Swedish outfit Malmo after levelling the third qualifying round tie through Alfredo Morelos’ first half strike.

Rangers had a numerical advantage for the entire second half after Malmo’s Bonke Innocent was sent off on the stroke of half-time, but they could not take advantage as a quickfire brace from Antonio Colak sent the visitors through.

A third successive defeat for Rangers – their worst run since May 2015 – means Gerrard’s side become the second Scottish club to be knocked out, after Celtic were beaten by Denmark’s Midtjylland.

Rangers will now face a Europa League play-off against Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty or Armenia’s Alashkert of Armenia next week.

Gerrard told Premier Sports: ‘We did really well for 45 minutes, but we got two restarts badly wrong and paid for it.

‘The most frustrating part is we’ve lost the second half to 10 men. To be 1-0 up and then go 2-1 down, a bit of fear and panic set in. We’ve got the second-half performance wrong and that’s on all of us.

‘We’ve lost three games out of four and, at Rangers, that’s not good enough.’

Rangers stormed to the Scottish Premiership title last season, winning 32 of their 38 matches – the other six were drawn – to amass 102 points and finish 25 points ahead of rivals Celtic.

Last month, the champions suffered an opening-day defeat for the first time in 24 years as they lost 2-1 to Scottish Premiership new boys Hearts.

Rangers returned to winning ways in the league on Sunday with a 6-0 thrashing over Dundee and host Hearts in the Scottish Cup this weekend.

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