After a disastrous first half at Ibrox last week, a second-half goal gave Rangers the faintest of hope for this return fixture, but that dim light was all but extinguished after just five minutes.
Nicolo Tresoldi met Joaquin Seys’ cross with a diving header that he buried beyond Jack Butland, and things only got worse for the visitors when Max Aarons was sent off for hauling down Christos Tzolis just three minutes later.
Russell Martin’s men simply capitulated from there, with Butland called into action time and time again. Rangers’ rearguard temporarily held firm, with Tzolis hitting the bar and Butland keeping him at bay.
He then made a flying save to deny Aleksandar Stanković just after the half-hour mark, but from the resulting corner, he was finally beaten as Brugge captain Hans Vanaken headed home Tzolis’ delivery to make it 2-0 on the night.
The Blauw-Zwart were oozing confidence and Vanaken lashed a Marco van Basten-style volley against the bar shortly after, but the floodgates opened just before the break with three goals in quick succession.
First, Seys slid home a rebound after Butland had made yet another save to deny him initially, before the 20-year-old side-footed home on the volley at the back post as the Scottish side’s defence went missing once more.
The home players were queuing up to get on the scoresheet as they heaped yet more embarrassment on the visitors in stoppage time, with Stanković given the freedom of the penalty area to nod home Vanaken’s cross for a fifth.
The beleaguered Martin made a triple change at the break to try to stem the flow, but even that didn’t work as the home side continued to cut through the defence like a hot knife through butter.
Tresoldi and Tzolis exchanged passes, with the Greek international finishing via the inside of the post for the sixth goal which arrived just five minutes after the restart.
Mercifully, the onslaught calmed but this was truly one of the darkest days in Rangers’ proud history to leave Martin, only appointed in June, already clinging on to his job by the skin of his teeth.
Their consolation prize is a place in the Europa League where they will join bitter rivals Celtic, with whom they clash with on Sunday. Whether their manager will even make it that far is, incredibly, very much up for debate.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Joaquin Seys (Club Brugge)