08 April 2022

It’s still all to play for in the Europa League tie – Giovanni van Bronckhorst

08 April 2022

Giovanni van Bronckhorst insists Rangers “have all to play for” in their Europa League tie against Braga at Ibrox next week.

The Light Blues went down 1-0 to the Portuguese side in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Thursday night with the 40th minute counter by Spanish striker Abel Ruiz proving to be the difference in a game where Gers’ chances were at a premium while the home side hit the post and had a goal chalked off after a VAR check.

Ahead of the cinch Premiership game against St Mirren in Paisley on Sunday, where the Gers boss will assess his squad before finalising a team, the Dutchman spoke in optimistic tones about the game in Govan and the chance to reach the semi-final.

He said: “Of course we didn’t want to lose but you have to take back a result where you are still in the tie and we are.

“Yesterday we had possibilities to get a better result, at times we looked dangerous, especially in transition.

“The last 20 minutes of the game we were pushing for the 1-1 and you can see the margins are very close against a quality team, they showed that also in moments of the game.

“But still we have all to play for next week and we know at home, at Ibrox we can have the result we want.

“It is quite close, it could have been a draw, we also created some chances to score but in the end we weren’t clinical as we wanted to be and a 1-0 defeat away goal without away goals (counting double in the case of a draw) means a two-goal win sends us through so all to play for on Thursday.”

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