Given everything in football is relative, Steven Gerrard has quickly lurched towards territory marked ‘crisis.’ Suffice to say, this was not in the script amid wild title celebrations around Ibrox in May. For the first time in his Rangers tenure, Gerrard has presided over three defeats in a row. This one, as ended Rangers’ dreams of competing in the Champions League once again, was particularly ignominious as arriving against a Malmö side which was formed of just 10 men for the entire second half. Rangers had even taken an early lead through Alfredo Morelos, before the kind of bemusing capitulation as will haunt their manager. Rangers are making catastrophic errors in defence and lack punch in attack, as now punished by Malmö – twice – and Dundee United.
Malmö must celebrate pairings with Scottish opposition. A decade ago, they also defeated Rangers on Champions League qualifying business. They did likewise to Celtic in 2015. In between, they swaggered to a 7-0 win at Hibernian. The stuff of Swede dreams.
