Russell Martin’s eighth match of a Rangers reign already riddled with doubts proved close to a living nightmare. Championship promotion races and playoffs, the ill winds of struggling in the Premier League have nothing on the fever-dream pressures of failing to turn around one of Glasgow’s giants.
Martin may be a believer in his own processes but in an environment where snap decisions are often sustained, he does not have long to set them in place. The chances of Rangers playing Champions League football rather than the Europa League are an outside chance after a first-half performance of rank ineptitude, the tone and probably the two-legged tie set by a horrible opening 20 minutes in which three soft goals were conceded. So early in his stewardship, Martin is still in the experimental phase and until a revival in the second half the experiment looked likely to be abandoned some time soon.
Jayden Meghoma was making his debut at left-back, the Brentford loanee familiar to Martin from Southampton. James Tavernier, club captain, was benched, with another Premier League loanee, Max Aarons at right-back. Christos Tzolis, reportedly high on Crystal Palace’s list should Eberechi Eze depart, and a scorer for Greece at Hampden Park in March, was earmarked as Brugge’s danger man, veteran Hans Vanaken as the roving playmaker. They did not take long to hit their straps.
Ibrox initially backed its team. With Europa League qualification banked, Rangers went at their task positively. Though briefly. In the third minute came one of those moments that scar Martin’s reign so far. His managerial career, too. Danilo’s shot at the Brugge goal was blocked and within seconds Rangers were a goal down, the ball bouncing to Tzolis, whose onward ball caught a dozing Nasser Djiga unawares, goalkeeper Jack Butland stranded. Romeo Vermant’s lobbed finish was exquisite, even if granted the freedom of Govan.
To compound disaster, Rangers’ mess of a zonal defence allowed Jorne Spileers to stroke home Vermant’s corner four minutes later, defenders stock-still. By the 20th minute, the tie felt all but decided, bar barracking for Rangers players and manager.
Brandon Mechele celebrated his 500th Brugge appearance by seizing on a loose ball, drilling home, again unchallenged, sending fans barrelling for the exits. A grim, ugly exposure. Whatever Martin is attempting, such moments only cut down his chances of being given time. Never in 61 years of European football had Rangers fallen so far behind so quickly.
Nicky Hayen, the Brugge coach, was at nearby Haverfordwest while Martin managed Championship Swansea in the 2021-22 season. In 2025, the gulf between their teams during that first 45 minutes was aching. The half-time reaction was rancorous but Rangers players returned with higher energy, and their lifeline arrived. Meghoma burst down the left, supplying Danilo for a close-range finish. That injected positivity into Ibrox, Brugge’s defenders far less composed as Djeidi Gassama was the liveliest.
At last, the attacking football Martin evangelises, though the back door remained open, Butland saved when Mechele was again unmarked from a corner. On the hour, Martin threw on Hamza Igamane and Thelo Aasgaard, with Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore soon arriving alongside Tavernier.
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Brugge, mindful of their advantage, retreated into their shell, looking to the counter and Rangers’ propensity for mistakes for their opportunities to attack. And inviting Rangers on, they seemed to have conceded again, Gassama forcing the ball home from close range only for him to be penalised for knocking the ball from veteran goalkeeper Simon Mignolet’s grasp. It looked marginal, at best, and stopped the roof being raised but did at least suggest Rangers had improved from the abject gloom of the first half.
Mignolet was certainly the busier goalkeeper as the end of the first leg beckoned. Rangers had only partially redeemed themselves but Martin, one of life’s optimists, will take the positives from a marked improvement. The truth was it could hardly have been any worse. Better – far far better – must come in Belgium if Rangers are to have any hope in the second leg.