Rangers slumped to a sixth defeat in six Champions League group stage games, losing to Ajax on Tuesday night. The 3-1 defeat at Ibrox saw the Glasgow club become statistically the worst-performing Champions League group stage side in history.
This questionable honour sees them join a host of sides who have come away points-less from their European group. Here are the five worst performing teams in Champions League history, with goal difference used as a tie-breaker.
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5. MSK Zilina (2010/11)
The Slovak Superliga side dominate their domestic scene, having won seven top tier titles to date. But the gap in class became cavernous when they played in the UCL group stage at the turn of the last decade.
Marseille, Spartak Moscow and reigning Premier League champions Chelsea had far too much for The Shoshone. Zilina shipped 19 goals, scoring just three, on the way to an early exit from the competition.
4. Levski Sofia (2006/07)
Another team that ran afoul of Chelsea. A Didier Drogba hat-trick saw off the Bulgarian side away, while back at Stamford Bridge goals from Andriy Shevchenko and Shaun Wright-Phillips did the job.
Sofia didn’t fare any better against their other group opponents. Then-holders Barcelona and Werder Bremen were no more forgiving, with Sofia only managing to score once against 17 goals conceded across the group.
3. Spartak Moscow (2002/03)
While the Russian side joined in the fun against Zilina in 2010/11, eight years previously they had played the role of whipping boys.
Spartak likely targeted Swiss side Basel as their best hope of points in the group. But the Gladiators lost 2-0 home and away to the underdogs. Liverpool and Valencia also beat them, with Spartak scoring just one goal to their opposition’s collective 18.
2. Dinamo Zagreb (2011/12)
The Croatian giants were brought down to size in a fearsome group back in 2011. On paper, Real Madrid, Ajax and Lyon look like a tough proposition for any team. Somehow, in practice it was even worse than it looked.
Incredibly, despite conceding seven goals to Los Blancos over two games, Dinamo were able to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo from scoring against them. Considering he bagged 60 goals in 55 appearances that season, that’s impressive.
1. Rangers (2022/23)
The new entry to this unedifying ensemble, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side slumped to six defeats with a loss to Ajax on Matchday Six. The manner in which they lost those games puts them top, or bottom, of this list.
The 7-1 drubbing against Liverpool will be the lingering memory, but a 4-0 pumping in their first game against Ajax and twin 3-0 losses to Napoli won’t have helped. A truly tame display that all those on the blue side of Glasgow will be trying desperately to forget.
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