Rapid Vienna captain Stefan Schwab has claimed he wasn’t impressed with Rangers players at Ibrox, despite Steven Gerrard’s side winning 3-1 in the first UEFA Europa League meeting between the two sides.
Rangers need another win against the Austrians on Thursday night in order to progress to the knockout stages of the competition, but Schwab believes it will be a complete different story on Vienna’s patch.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, Schwab said of the first meeting:
To be honest, it wasn’t the Rangers players who impressed me over in Glasgow, it was their supporters. They didn’t have 11 players on the pitch with that crowd . . . it was like they had 12 men. But it’s our turn now on Thursday. Rangers will see what our fans can be like now.
The position is great for us because Rangers need to win and we don’t. They have to play more openly and they will want to try and score early. That will give us space and we are a much better team when that happens.
While it’s nice to hear how effective the Ibrox atmosphere can be, I’m not sure Gerrard’s Rangers stars will be too impressed with Schwab’s comments considering the Austrians were handily beaten in Glasgow.
Has the Vienna captain just written Gerrard’s team talk for him?
Not only will Rangers be desperate to pick up all three points, they know that Vienna are beatable and will want to show that they aren’t just a team that can impress at Ibrox.
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