PARIS: Rangers bowed out of the Champions Lea­gue play-offs on Wedne­sday with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on manager Russell Martin, while Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce.

The Glasgow giants trave­lled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes.

They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion before Rangers defender Max Aarons was sent off in the eighth, completing a crus­h­ing 9-1 agregate defeat.

Benfica had two goals disallowed on review in the first half before their Turkish forward Kerem Akturk­oglu scored with a rising shot in the 35th minute that earned the Lisbon side a 1-0 win and sent them through after the first leg in Turkey had ended goalless.

Mourinho is a two-time Champ­ions League winner but has not coached in the main stage of the marquee competition for six seasons. Fenerbahce’s absence now stretches to 17 seasons.

FC Copenhagen and Qarabag of Azerbaijan also advanced to complete the 36-team lineup for the league phase.

Qarabag are back in the Champions League eight years after their debut campaign, winning 5-4 on aggregate over Ferenc­varos despite a 3-2 loss in Baku on Wednesday.

Copenhagen won 2-0 at home to Basel to advance 3-1 on aggregate.

The night could hardly have started worse for Ra­n­g­ers, as Brugge’s Nicolo Tresoldi opened the scoring before Aarons was sent off for hauling down Christos Tzolis.

The visitors duly collapsed as Tzolis struck the bar from distance before his corner was headed in after 32 minutes by Hans Vanaken, who hit the woodwork with a brilliant volley soon after.

Joaquin Seys added a quickfire double that turned the contest into a rout before Aleksandar Stankovic — son of Inter Milan’s 2010 Champions League winner Dejan — headed in the hosts’ fifth of the night deep into first-half stoppage time.

The onslaught continued five minutes after the restart when Tzolis added a sixth, after which Brugge eased off, content to keep possession and see out the match at a slower tempo.

The defeat matches Rangers’ heaviest ever losing margin in a European game.

They will drop into the Europa League, while Martin’s position appears in jeopardy with the Champions League debacle following a start to their domestic campaign which has seen them draw their first three Scottish Premiership matches.

Rangers’ next face Cel­tic in a high-stakes derby at Ibrox this weekend.

“The only thing you can do tonight is accept the pain, accept the humiliation,” Martin said. “We have to heal and get stronger. We have to show a big response on Sunday.”

Benfica join city rivals Sporting Lisbon in the league phase after their tie was ultimately settled by a strike by Akturkoglu.

That made it a losing return to the Estadio da Luz for Mourinho, who was briefly Benfica coach at the start of his managerial career.

It was perhaps a little too close for comfort for Qarabag, but the Azeri side still celebrated an agg­r­egate triumph over Hung­a­r­ian outfit Ferencvaros.

Leandro Andrade and Abdellah Zoubir scored for Qarabag on the night, with Gabi Kanichowsky, Barnabas Varga from a penalty, and Alex Toth netting for the visitors.

Copenhagen booked their place in the league phase as Andreas Corneliuss header and a late Youssoufa Moukoko goal sealed victory over Swiss champions Basel.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2025