Ajax give Rangers rude awakening on Champions League return

Rangers suffered a chastening return to the Champions League after a 12-year absence as Ajax ran riot in a 4-0 win in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Edson Alvarez, Steven Berghuis, Mohammed Kudus and Steven Bergwijn were on target for the Dutch champions as they shrugged off the loss of a number of key players in the transfer window.

Rangers run to the Europa League final last season and victory over Ajax’s Eredivisie title rivals PSV Eindhoven in qualifying for the group stage raised hopes Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men could compete in a group also containing Liverpool and Napoli.

But after losing 4-0 to Celtic on Saturday, Rangers were blown away before half-time for the second time in a week.

Ajax brought in over 200 million euros ($199 million) in transfer fees for Antony, Lisandro Martinez, Sebastien Haller and Ryan Gravenberch in recent months.

However, they withstood interest in Alvarez late in the window from Chelsea and the Mexican opened the floodgates when he was left unmarked to head in a corner on 17 minutes.

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