Jagiellonia Bialystok striker Nik Prelec scoresSNS

Nik Prelec's goal took Jagiellonia through to the play-off round

At a glance

  • Rangers take the lead through a first-half Shankland penalty

  • Jagiellonia equalise with Prelec header to win 3-2 on aggregate

  • Rangers miss out on Europa League play-off round and drop down to same stage of Conference League

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

Rangers crashed out of the Europa League as former Oxford United striker Nik Prelec's equaliser on the night took Jagiellonia Bialystok into the play-off round on aggregate.

It leaves Derek McInnes still waiting for a win after four games as the Glasgow side's manager and means they will have to beat Czech team Jablonec if they are to extend their European campaign into the Conference League.

The hosts failed to build on Lawrence Shankland's first Rangers goal, which had levelled the aggregate score at 2-2, and Jagiellonia were comfortable victors after Prelec's reply.

Visiting goalkeeper Slawomir Abramowicz beat away efforts from Dujon Sterling and captain Shankland, but it was Jagiellonia who came closest in an end-to-end start.

Jesus Imaz fired a low 20-yard drive off the inside of a post and across the face of goal before the veteran striker also volleyed tamely into the arms of goalkeeper Ivor Pandur.

However, it was Rangers who took the lead when Daisuke Yokota's low cutback into the six-yard box was spotted by VAR striking the arm of former Celtic centre-half Yuki Kobayashi and Scotland striker Shankland stepped up to slot the opener.

Jagiellonia continued to threaten and Imaz again stung the palms of Pandur before Prelec could only fire across the face of goal on the slide.

McInnes replaced midfielder Thelo Aasgaard with Ross McCrorie at half-time as he reverted to a back four and the replacement was found wanting at the back post when Prelec rose to head home a fine Anders Klynge cross.

McInnes was throwing everything off the bench and Findlay Curtis' fine cross gave fellow substitute Bojan Miovski a sight at goal from six yards, but the striker headed wastefully wide of the far post.

Their final chance was gone and McInnes was left facing a nightmare start as Rangers manager, with he and his side greeted with a chorus of boos from those fans who had remained in a half-empty Ibrox by full-time.

Rangers in crisis as they exit with whimper - analysis

Missing left-back Tuur Rommens through injury, as well as big-money striker Youssef Chermiti, McInnes moved to a back three among five changes from Sunday's defeat by Hibernian.

Jagiellonia counterpart Adrian Siemieniec promised his side would be dangerous on the counter and so it proved as they took advantage of the extra space out wide of the home defence.

Rangers certainly heeded McInnes plea for "more risk", but it took a moment of fortune to hand them the lead as Kobayashi, who had overcome a knock to start, mistimed his clearing header to give away the spot-kick.

The switch to a back four at the break, with midfielder Aasgaard replaced with McCrorie, playing an unfamiliar left-back role, led to Rangers losing all fluidity.

McCrorie looked to be at fault as Prelec headed what proved to be the decisive goal.

No matter how many changes McInnes made thereafter, the anticipated late pressure on the Jagiellonia penalty box failed to materialise.

McInnes earned plenty of plaudits for taking Hearts to within minutes of a shock Scottish title last season.

What a difference a few months make and the former Ibrox midfielder is already facing a crisis - two Scottish Premiership games without a win, now out of the Europa League, all with a bit of a whimper.

What McInnes said

McInnes on Rangers' Europa League exit

Rangers manager Derek McInnes: "In the four games we've had, there's been some good moments, but it's not been good enough and certainly not a strong enough 90-minute performance.

"It is not great to watch. My team go from some good highs in the first half to being as poor as we were in the second half and you have to say we didn't do enough.

"We huffed and puffed and even when we threw [Emmanuel] Fernandez up, we still don't make the right decisions.

"We should be winning this game. Jagiellonia are a decent team with some good players and I think they're well coached, but Rangers at their best should be winning this."

What's next?

Rangers are in Premier Sports Cup last-16 action on Sunday at home to holders St Mirren (16:00) before facing Jablonec, who earlier defeated RFS of Latvia, in the Conference League play-off first leg next Thursday.

Player of the match

N. Prelec
8.47
1 I. Pandur
3.81
52 F. Curtis
3.75
17 D. Yokota
3.74
24 O. Makhanya
3.65
21 D. Sterling
3.49
43 N. Raskin
3.42
37 E. Fernandez
3.35
11 T. Aasgaard
3.30
14 C. Devlin
3.29
22 V. Dragojević
3.29
23 D. Gassama
3.29
6 D. Neil
3.14
2 R. McCrorie
3.10
20 R. Naderi
3.00
7 L. Shankland
2.97
28 B. Miovski
2.94
Back to team tabs

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.