Barry Ferguson claims Rangers denied two ‘clear’ penalties in Bilbao

Barry Ferguson claimed Rangers were denied two penalties in their 2-0 defeat by Athletic Bilbao that sent them crashing out of the Europa League.

The Gers had battled hard last week to keep the first leg of the quarter-final tie at Ibrox goalless after the early dismissal of defender Robin Propper and were holding out in the San Mames stadium until added time in the first half when defender John Souttar conceded a penalty in added time which Oihan Sancet converted.

Gers midfielder Nicolas Raskin hit the post after the break but a header from Spain winger Nico Williams with 10 minutes remaining sealed the Gers’ fate in a 2-0 aggregate defeat.

Ferguson believes his side should have been awarded a penalty at 0-0 when striker Cyriel Dessers had his shirt pulled in the penalty box by Yeray Alvarez and claimed there was a handball in the Athletic box before Raskin got his shot away.

The former Rangers captain said: “We should have had two penalties.

“The first one changes the dynamic of the game. It’s a clear pull on Cyriel and a clear red card.

“If they go down to 10 men that changes the full game and it baffles me at times, some of the decisions.

“Then the second one, in the second half with Nico, when the defender’s hand is out and the ball strikes it. That’s another penalty.

“The fourth official wasn’t willing to speak to me and I wasn’t going to get a booking myself.

“Then Cyriel comes off to change his strip and gets a yellow card when he throws it.

“Look, I’m not going to tip-toe around it, everybody in this room and everybody who watched it knows it was a penalty kick and a red card.

“So it’s so disappointing that the referee hasn’t made the right decision. But the second one is clear as day as well.

“Before Nico strikes it, it clearly hits the player’s hand. It’s frustrating we didn’t get both penalties. I’m obviously disappointed.

“It’s going to hurt, this one, but we need to go away and reflect a bit. That’s not just the players but myself too.

“Then we need to come on Monday morning and finish the season as strongly as possible.”

Ferguson was the club ambassador when he was installed as boss until the end of the season when Philippe Clement departed in February.

The Ibrox club will end the season trophy-less and asked about his future, the former Clyde, Kelty Hearts and Alloa boss pointed to that fact when he said: “I’ve not sat down and spoken about it but it needs to get sorted soon because as a club we obviously need to do a lot of work.

“It’s getting late in the season and the club needs to get back challenging.

“It’s a good European run, but sadly it ended tonight. But domestically we need to be challenging for trophies.

“So in terms of my future going forward, I’ll wait and see what happens there.

“I’m just concerned in terms of what happens; I just want my club to get back where it should be.

“That’s my main concern. Whether that’s me or somebody else, and if it’s not me, I’ll fully support them.

“I’ll go back and do what I was doing before and get right behind [them], making sure that we get the club back to winning trophies on a regular basis.”