Steven Gerrard admits Rangers suffered a concentration lapse against Malmo

Steven Gerrard warned his Rangers players that their Champions League dream will be over unless they produce a radically improved display against Malmo next Tuesday.

Although Steven Davis scored with the last kick of the ball in Sweden, the loss of two goals at the start of the second half has left the Ibrox men’s hopes of reaching the group stages on a knife edge.

Sloppy and unconvincing for most of the night, Rangers were undone by Soren Rieks and Veljko Birmancevic in a disastrous two-minute spell.

Manager Steven Gerrard (above) warned his Rangers players that their Champions League dream will be over unless they produce a radically improved display against Malmo

But while veteran Davis’ deflected injury-time strike halved the deficit for an under-strength Rangers’ side, Gerrard felt the display fell well short of the standards his side have set.

‘We are disappointed with the result, disappointed with a couple of the goals we conceded but I think there has just been a big moment at the very end of that game that has obviously gone in our favour,’ he reflected after his first loss in a qualifier.

‘It is a big moment, in my opinion, and it sets it up for next week. It is not the position that we wanted to be in, but it is obviously better than going in 2-0 (down) and we were also maybe on the verge of going in even worse as well.

‘The injury time has been big for us, but our performance over the 90 minutes hasn’t been good enough.

‘We are going to have to go up levels individually and collectively next week. I am going to call on the Ibrox crowd. I have never done it before, but we are going to need them. We are going to need them for a full 90 minutes. With that behind us, and the mentality change in injury time, it could be a big moment.’

Rangers were left to pay the price for a lamentable re-start to the game which saw Malmo twice capitalise on slip-shod defending with fingers pointed at skipper James Tavernier.

‘I thought at half time we were okay, we were fine, we were in a good shape and looking the more likely at half time,’ Gerrard reflected.

‘We lost our way for four, five minutes and conceded two poor goals. The first one may have been offside, I am not sure. Even still, we have got to defend that better from that moment.

‘The second goal, we never really cleared our heads after the first goal and we got punished and that is what happens at this level. You are playing against good footballers and good teams.’

Gerrard was again thankful for the contribution of Davis with the 36-year-old providing the moment which might just take the team through to the play-off round.

‘We had two magnificent performances tonight,’ said Gerrard.

‘I thought Fil Helander played at Champions League level, he was outstanding. Steven Davis, I am running out of plaudits for Davo. He is someone that doesn’t give up, keeps going to the end, and he has provided a real big moment that has given us an important lifeline going into next week. It is what it is. I don’t think we deserved to lose the game 2-0, or any worse than that.’

Gerrard will still have to do without the suspended Glen Kamara and Kemar Roofe for next week’s return leg but both Joe Aribo, who’s been injured, and Alfredo Morelos, who’s returning from the Copa America, will be in contention.

‘I need to get some bodies back to help us,’ he said. ‘You could see tonight we were very young in terms of the bench and we didn’t have many options behind us.

‘It is difficult to throw young lads into that situation so I wanted to protect them. Fashion (Sakara) came on and made a difference I thought when we went two up front and pinned their centre halves back.

‘At the weekend (at Dundee United) I am hoping to have Aribo, Kamara, Roofe, (Leon) Balogun available, obviously big Jon (McLaughlin) comes back into the thinking as well. We will be a lot stronger at the weekend in terms of the squad and we will need to be and we will need to perform better. I have just said to the boys in there, in my honest opinion, there are six or seven that need to raise their level and raise it sharply.’