Zambia national team forward Fashion Sakala and his FC Rangers teammates were on Tuesday evening eliminated from the 2021/2022 UEFA Champions League.
Rangers suffered a 4-2 aggregate loss to Swedish outfit Malmö FF following a 2-1 loss at Ibrox. Rangers came into the match trailing with two goals to one deficit having lost away in Sweden last week.
Steven Gerrard made four changes from the team which suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Dundee United on Saturday, in came Allan McGregor, Leon Balogun, Scott Arfield, and Scott Wright in place of Jon McLaughlin, Fil Helander, Glen Kamara, and John Lundstram. Fashion Sakala who missed the game on Saturday returned but could only make the bench.
Rangers started strong and created two real chances within the first five minutes with Aribo, Ryan Kent, and Alfredo Morelos all involved.
The pressure paid off 18 minutes into the match, Ryan Kent’s ball to the back post was a superb one, and there to bundle the ball over the line was Alfredo Morelos for his first of the season and to wipe out Malmo’s first-leg advantage, 2-2.
Rangers were given a numbers advantage at the death of the first half after Malmo were reduced to 10-men in the one minute of stoppage time with Bonke Innocent shown a red card by referee Slavko Vincic of Slovenia.
Malmö drew level just eight minutes into the second stanza, Antonio-Mirko Colak scoring inside the 18-yard box, a well-executed strike into the bottom far corner.
And four minutes later, he was back again to grab his brace, This time, he cut in from the right-wing, turned superbly, and finished beyond McGregor.
Sakala came from the bench to replace Scott Wright in the 63rd minute and had two chances to turn things around but it was not the Light Blues night as they bowed out of the Champions, 2-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.
Next up for Fashion Sakala’s FC Rangers is the Europa League play-off against either FC Kairat Almaty or Alashkert FC.
