Rangers let any lingering realistic hope of Europa League progression slip through their fingers as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Braga, despite their Portuguese visitors playing more than half an hour with 10 men.
Worse still, Rangers were a goal ahead at the time of Braga star man Rodrigo Zalazar's dismissal on the hour mark, but instead of seeing out their lead capitulated to allow a poor equaliser from Gabri Martinez, and were left to hold on to a point which does nothing to aid their already distant dreams of a last-16 place.
Danny Röhl's side sit fourth bottom of the group phase table despite picking up their first point of the season, needing a minor miracle to mount a five-point gap even to the play-off spots with three games remaining and nine teams to overtake.
Up until Zalazar's red, Rangers had been the better team at Ibrox and deservedly held a half-time lead courtesy of James Tavernier's penalty following a handball awarded by a VAR review.
That strike took the captain level with Gers legend Ally McCoist on 21 European goals - and at that point, everything looked rosy.
It would not last. Despite Zalazar's red card, brought about by another VAR review which spotted he had moved his head towards Nicolas Raskin during a confrontation, Braga equalised just eight minutes later when Nasser Djiga misjudged a cross and provided the perfect assist for Martinez to bundle home at the back post.
Rangers' lack of urgency to restore their advantage was all the more puzzling with their extra man, and became irrelevant when Mohamed Diomande was harshly shown a second yellow in added time for an inadvertent elbow.