Rangers defy UEFA orders and passionately sing 'God Save the King' before Napoli game

Rangers fans and players sang 'God Save the King' ahead of their Champions League clash with Napoli this evening - despite UEFA denying their request to play it. Check it out below:

The Scottish giants requested to sing the national anthem at Ibrox ahead of the game in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96 last Thursday.

UEFA rejected the request while also confirming the iconic Champions League anthem would not be played at any ground in Britain.

Rangers stated they would not be following UEFA's ruling earlier on Wednesday and what followed was a spine-tingling rendition of the anthem.

BT Sport cameras captured supporters in the crowd singing along, while a few Rangers players did also.

A huge display made up the Union Jack and a silhouette of the Queen in the home end.

Rangers fans paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II ahead of their Champions League match against Napoli. pic.twitter.com/uGCans2hq1

— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) September 14, 2022

UEFA's reason for not playing the anthem was so a 'consistent' pre-match ceremony with a 'subdued atmosphere' could be maintained.

An official statement reads: "There will be no anthems played – this also includes the UEFA Champions League anthem – on the basis of maintaining a consistent pre-match ceremony with a subdued atmosphere and without any celebratory activities across all UK venues to show respect as we did last Thursday."

Rangers released a statement three hours before kick-off which said: "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be honoured this evening at Ibrox with a minute’s silence, a display created by the Union Bears, and a rendition of the Nation Anthem.

"If you are attending tonight’s match, we encourage all supporters to be in their seat for 19:50."

Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side come into the second matchday bottom of Group A following a 4-0 defeat to Ajax last week.

Napoli, meanwhile, demolished last season's losing finalists Liverpool 4-1.

Van Bronckhorst admitted in his pre-match press conference: "We need the level of performances by players to be up, and our team level as well or we are also going to struggle vs Napoli.

"But I am confident after the week we have had, and the preparation, and of course the experience of the game last week, we will be in a much better place tomorrow."

The game is currently 0-0 at halftime and both sides have had opportunities to take the lead through James Tavernier and Giovanni Simeone respectively.