The fixtures keep coming in what is traditionally a busy time of the year with a trip to the Czech Republic and Sparta Prague next on the horizon after a game against Dundee that many will want to forget in a hurry.
Focus quickly turned to the Europa League though with Steven Gerrard keen to emphasise how important continental football is to Rangers, as reported by the Glasgow Times:
“We love playing in Europe.
“It’s the reason why we fought so hard over the years to get to this level.
“It was disappointing that we didn’t qualify for the Champions League against Malmo.
“But we had to move on pretty quickly from that which we did.
“We want to get off the mark and get maximum points. If we can do that, then we’ve recovered our bad start.
“It will be a tough game but the lads will be ready for it. We’re always ready to go somewhere in Europe and try and get a result for the fans.”
Make no mistake, Lyon are a very good team and yet we were competitive for long periods, a taster of what’s to come if we do manage to make the group stages of the Champions League next season, Sparta Prague will be tough as well, their Under-21 side gave Celtic a chasing last season – nothing should be taken for granted.
We haven’t looked anywhere near our best this season but there have been signs, against Livingston and Motherwell, that there has been progress made on the training ground in terms of righting the wrongs of our performances, we will need to up these levels again if we are to get our first points on the board in this year’s competition.
Momentum is a hard thing to build up but Gerrard will be keen for his players to rediscover the sort of confidence that saw them go unbeaten in the league and in the Europa League group stages, a positive display and result against Sparta would go a long way in keeping us on the right tracks to a successful season.