They say lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice, and yet at Ibrox the waft of charred earth was unmistakable.

For the second tie running Rangers were undone by a total loss of defensive concentration in the early period of a second-half.

Like in Sweden last week, their overall performance against Malmo was solid but a short period of calamity catastrophically undermined everything good that had gone before.

Steven Gerrard will be apoplectic that his team can put so many elements of a performance together but be undone by five mad minutes. Twice.

And how costly it’s proven. The £40m Champions League bounty that would have been transformative to the club is now but a barely remembered dream. 

Europa League football will be scant consolation to the players and manager desperate to test themselves against the best.

Both Malmo goals from Croatian Antonio Colak were eminently avoidable but the crucial second was especially frustrating.

The Ibrox defence switched off at a throw-in and as the ball arrived at the 27-year-old's feet, he turned Leon Balogun with a deft flick before rifling low past Allan McGregor.

The Nigerian got far too tight in the first instance and then nowhere near tight enough in the second. 

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Yes, it was an exceptional bit of skill and fine finish, but Balogun won’t want to see it too often given how unceremoniously he was skinned.

It was baffling given it had all looked so promising at half-time.

Rangers went in a goal up and with an extra man after Bonke Innocent’s red card for a second bookable offence. The midfielder was unlucky to be dismissed given Goldson had challenged for the ball with equal aggression but few in Ibrox would have cared – it seemed fortune was favoring Gerrard’s men.

Perhaps it was complacency, perhaps it was Malmo’s clever tactics but the Swedes started the second 45 much stronger than they ended the first.

Echoing the strategy often employed by Gerrard when reduced to 10 men, Jon Dahl Tomasson moved to a 4-3-2 that seemed to spook the hosts with its attacking intent.

From the restart Malmo looked menacing and so it proved. Within 12 minutes, Colak had nestled two into the Alan McGregor’s bottom right corner.

Malmo then sat back into a compact block and invited an onslaught.

While Rangers pushed forward with urgency, there was never a real fluency to their play that made you believe they might turn it around.

For Gerrard, there is much to mull over as he ponders a third loss in a row.

How does he return his side to the slick outfit of last season? How does he ensure his defence is more robust in European competition? Why have they twice lost goals in early second half spurts?

He will have to come up with answers and fast, because 55 champions or not, Ibrox doesn’t tolerate mounting defeats for long.

His first task will be to get back onto the training ground with his malfunctioning defence and look to ensure there is no repeat of the calamities that have destroyed their Champions League dream.