Ondrej Kudela has given a detailed account of the post match incident that has resulted in criminal charges being made to Police Scotland.
The Slavia Prague defender was involved in a late flash point with Glen Kamara that the Ibrox club has opted to focus on to deflect away from a number of unsavoury incidents during and after the match.
Goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar was on the receiving end of a brutal attack from Kemar Roofe that resulted in a fractured skull that may require facial surgery.
It was a night of shame for the Ibrox club as Gerrard was outclassed tactically while his side lost their discipline as the decisions that routinely go their way in Scotland were decided on by an Israeli referee.
UEFA have already launched an investigation into the match, if Kudela’s version stands up there could be some very stiff punishments heading the way of the Ibrox club.
Picking up on an interview with a Czech publisher, the Daily Record reports the Slavia defender saying:
Rangers did not want to let us into the dressing room for 45 minutes. I have never experienced anything like this in my career. Unfortunately, even UEFA was unable to help us at that moment, despite all their efforts. The hosts did not respect their representatives at all.
So when it seemed that the situation had calmed down, I met Kamara in the tunnel. In front of the UEFA representatives and both managers, he punched me full in the face with his fist, calmly and prepared, without any warning.
I did not react in any way. I was then reassured by both the security guards and UEFA representatives, who were completely shocked and shaken by what they saw. I left, and I had to go to doping control, for which I was chosen.
My regret is that after another amazing success, no one is writing about what we achieved. I’m not the type of player who would complain about what happened on the pitch or after the match. But I’m sorry about the response to what happened then.
There is no talk about the opposition having played beyond the barriers of fair play or how our keeper is really seriously injured and is afraid he may have to have facial surgery. Or about how well we played and what a great advert for Czech football it was. So I am sorry about that and if I could take back what happened I would because of that.
To be honest, I didn’t even want to be on the pitch at the end of the second half because for the home team, it wasn’t about football at all. Rangers played very hard from the beginning which culminated in insidious tackles in the second half. I’m not just talking about the red cards because there should have been more.
And of course there was a completely criminal foul on our goalkeeper. I saw him bleeding in the box and I was really worried about his life. Football was secondary at that moment. Then there was another unfair challenge on one of our players. Rangers simply couldn’t accept the result and they wanted to make the end of the game as unpleasant as possible for us.
In the quarter final draw Slavia will face Arsenal for a place in the last four of the Europa League.
