Rangers 0-2 Motherwell: Pedro Caixinha takes blame for League Cup exit

Pedro Caixinha says he "assumes all responsibility" for Rangers' disappointing display

Boss Pedro Caixinha admits he may have made his Rangers side anxious before their 2-0 Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat by Motherwell.

Ahead of the Hampden Park clash the Portuguese coach had said: "We only have two options - to win or win."

However, Louis Moult's double sent the Fir Park side into next month's final against Celtic.

"I assume all the responsibility because the team was a shade of what it needs to be," Caixinha said.

"The opponents played better, we let them play their own game. Our performance was really, really poor.

"Maybe I created a lot of expectation, I am always like that, maybe I created a sort of anxiety. I don't know why they under-performed, individually and collectively. It is up to me.

"We got a little better in the second half, we had a couple of chances to score, but after the second goal, we just disappeared as a team."

During an ill-tempered encounter, the Rangers boss and opposite number Stephen Robinson were both sent to the stands, where the Ibrox club's South Africa-based chairman Dave King was sat watching, with the score at 1-0.

Caixinha watched the final 23 minutes from the Hampden Park stands after being sent from the touchline

Caixinha was incensed when the already-booked Motherwell striker Ryan Bowman caught Fabio Cardoso with an elbow, in an incident which went unpunished by the officials.

"I just get a little bit angry after I saw Fabio's nose," the Portuguese explained. "We knew they were going to play aggressively but there are rules that don't allow elbows and that was all.

"But I am not referring to the referee. We were really poor and allowed the opponent to play the way they wanted to play the game and I think we deserved to lose this match."

Fresh doubt now surrounds Caixinha's future at the club, with former Rangers striker Stephen Thompson telling BBC Scotland: "I don't see how Pedro Caixinha can stay in the job".

But Caixinha will turn his attention to lifting his players for Wednesday's home Premiership match against Kilmarnock.

"My future is to prepare the boys to be ready to play on Wednesday," he told BT Sport.

"We have had a poor performance and we have to show a totally different face and that is what we expect. That is my job now and what I need to do.

"It was a bad day for them and a bad day for the club. I am responsible for that and I am responsible for lifting them to show a different face on Wednesday."