How Rangers topped xG but were outclassed by slick Ajax

As well as losing their six group games, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men have also become the worst-performing side in the history of the group stage format having conceded 22 goals and scoring just twice.

Despite the previous five losses Rangers went into the final group stage match with a remote chance of claiming a Europa League spot. They would’ve had to have put five goals past Alfred Schreuder’s side without reply but those faint hopes evaporated in the opening minutes.

The Dutch side were a class above despite Rangers boasting a better xG than their opponents.

The Light Blues accumulated a 1.86 xG come full-time with StatsBomb predicting they would win the match 50 per cent of the time. However, the figures are somewhat skewed given the graphic below which shows it wasn’t until Alfredo Morelos missed an open goal and James Tavernier converted his penalty that Rangers’ xG shot up.

(Image: Statsbomb)

If we take a closer look at the three Ajax goals we get a sense of just how poor they were to concede from a Rangers perspective.

The opener from Steven Berghuis as early as the fourth minute was another defensive calamity as Tavernier was caught out down the right-hand flank before a ball into the ball was laid off to Berghuis by the impressive Mohammed Kudus.

The Dutchman’s effort was unorthodox with Leon King appearing to think the shot was going wide of the post. Before the ball was struck it registered an xG of 0.13 however the execution saw this jump to 0.57 which tells you about the quality of the shot.

Goal number two arrived on the 29th minute when Kudus’ effort was deflected off King and past Allan McGregor. Again, the Post-Shot xG registers 0.9 which tells you it was a certain goal as soon as the ball left his foot.

Rangers huffed and puffed in the second half and should’ve reduced the deficit when Morelos dispossessed Remko Pasveer in the Ajax goal only to knock the ball wide with the goal at his mercy.

(Image: Rangers Review)

If we look at the attempt in closer detail it tells us just how bad a miss it was from the misfiring Colombian. It posted an xG of 0.69 prior to him striking the ball so it fell very much into the absolute sitter category.

Tavernier would eventually halve the deficit for around 40 seconds at least from the penalty spot before substitute Francisco Conceicao fired home goal number three. Here the Post-Shot xG registers just 0.31 which suggests more could’ve been done to prevent the ball from landing in the back of the net.

If we compare the pass networks from both teams, Dusan Tadic was an influential figure, particularly in the first half. The Serbian was involved in much of Ajax’s attacking play and saw a lot of joy down Rangers’ right-hand side.

(Image: StatsBomb)

Ryan Kent was Rangers’ most threatening outlet in the first half and we can see that he and Fashion Sakala tried to push high and wide.

The Zambian did reasonably well, he was fouled often with a number of Ajax players receiving yellow cards for hauling him down.

The pressure map below shows Rangers did target the left-hand flank of Ajax more so than the opposite side.

Interestingly, despite seeing little of the ball, Antonio Colak carried out the highest number of pressures, 26 but the Amsterdam giants coped in the main without really being under any proper degree of pressure.

Afterwards, van Bronckhorst said of Ajax: “It’s a different level.

“This is a team who are used to giving pressure, they are used to avoiding the high press with their movements. It’s not a team who are operating at the Champions League for the first time.”

The Dutchman is, of course, correct but the Rangers supporters have been left deflated by an ultimately humiliating Champions League campaign.

The good news is they won’t come up against three sides of the calibre of Ajax, Napoli or Liverpool again this season but it’s vital they don’t allow their dismal European showing to hamper their efforts of reclaiming the league title.