A first-half defensive horror show cost Rangers a 2-1 defeat at Sturm Graz to remain without a point in the Europa League, which keeps the pressure on Gers boss Russell Martin.

Rangers conceded after just seven minutes from their own throw-in, while the second came from a simple through-ball at a free-kick that exposed their high line.

The goals left Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd stunned as he labelled the defending for Tomi Horvat’s opener “embarrassing” and Otar Kiteishvili’s second “an absolute shambles”.

Rangers did produce a much stronger second half as Djeidi Gassama powered home just four minutes after the break.

Youssef Chermiti, Derek Cornelius and John Souttar all forced good saves as Rangers pushed for an equaliser.

But Oliver Christensen’s finest stop came in the 89th minute as he reacted superbly to deny Souttar’s strike from close range.

The Dane’s heroics saw the Austrian champions hold on to keep Rangers winless from their first two Europa League games and inflict more pain on Martin, who takes his side to Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.

Sunday 5th October 2:30pm


Kick off 3:00pm

Martin: Mentality to blame for poor start

Rangers head coach Russell Martin speaking to TNT Sports:

“You can’t start that poorly. We still had loads of chances in the first half, but they had too many, all from set-play or throw-in.

“But we just have to be brighter, organised, quicker, help each other more. The mentality is the problem. It’s not like we’re not doing what we should do on the set-play, we’re not doing what we should do on our throw-in. That’s a mentality issue in the first bit of the game.

“We still had loads of chances in the first half, we caused them a lot of problems.

“So dominant in the second half. Of course, we give up a couple of chances late on because we’re throwing everything at it, but we should score more goals. You come away in Europe and have that many chances at goal, and big chances, you can’t lose the game.”

“We gave up chances from set-plays early on, not in open play. Open play late on in the game when we’re trying to get an equaliser, and of course, there’s going to be space – so I just said, it’s a mentality thing.”

On how to fix it: “We have to look at it, we need to be brighter, we need to help each other more.

“We have a lot of young men, but they have to learn really quickly.

“We have to improve the mentality quickly because it’s not a technical or tactical problem.

“The mentality in the second half was brilliant. To compete, to fight, to run. We don’t do that in the first 20 minutes and we pay the price for it.”

Cornelius: We can’t be naive going into a game

Rangers defender Derek Cornelius speaking to TNT Sports:

“We didn’t start the match well, and that’s something we need to stop doing. We can’t be naive going into any game.

“Second half we were chasing the game and we weren’t good enough today. We need to do better.

“I don’t know what the problem is. It seems like there are moments when everyone is switched on and tuned in, and then other moments when we are just not.

“It can just switch, and I don’t know why. We need to fix those things.”

Opta stats: Rangers’ European clean sheet woes continue

• Rangers have now gone 22 away matches in all competitions without a clean sheet, equalling a club record that has stood since January 1897.
• Rangers have lost 37.5 per cent of their matches in all competitions this season (6/16), their highest percentage in a season since 1985-86 when they lost 38.6% of games (17/44).
• Rangers have conceded 60 goals in 44 games in all competitions in 2025, an average of 1.36 per game; this is their highest in a single year since 1961 (1.43 – conceded 77 in 54 games).

The story of the match in stats…

What’s coming up in the Europa League?