Rangers stunning display against Red Star Belgrade at Ibrox last week has seen Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side sit with one foot in the quarter-finals in what would be a truly stunning achievement.
Most fans would be happy with getting to this stage, however, writing in his Daily Mail column, via The Daily Record, Brian Laudrup believes that there is no reason why his former club can’t go all the way:
“If Rangers do reach the quarterfinals of the Europa League, then I believe they have everything in their power to go all the way.
“They have a high-quality squad and it’s clear that key players have found themselves again under Van Bronckhorst’s stewardship.
“I’m thinking, in particular, about Alfredo Morelos, who is back to his best, and about Ryan Kent, who has been outstanding in recent weeks after coming back from injury. When Kent gets the ball, things happen for Rangers.
“Right now, the bottom line is that Rangers have all their prolific players performing to the very best of their ability.
“Yes, there are big teams still left in the competition. But if Rangers can get those big players to keep playing to the best of their ability at this stage of the season, and the team can play like they did against Borussia Dortmund and in that first leg against Red Star, then they have the quality to go all the way.”
On paper, after beating Borussia Dortmund, Laudrup is right. There aren’t any teams left that Rangers should fear but football isn’t played on paper, after all, Barcelona and Sevilla are far from unknown quantities and that’s before you consider any of the other sides that are just as capable of winning it.
What we have learned is that, on our day, we are capable of beating anyone but we have to be aggressive and go toe to toe with them.
The second leg against Red Star could well be a carbon copy of the first, we saw, despite keeping a clean sheet, exactly what they are capable of and shouldn’t give up possession purel because we have a 3-0 led, eventually they will hurt us, but Laudrup is correct, if our big players turn up, anything is possible.