Rangers coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst has denied allegations that his workforce’s Europa League victory over Borussia Dortmund made his gamers smug, insisting they’d deal with his last-16 opponent with respect.
Former Ibrox midfielder Dragan Mladenovic introduced this as he appeared ahead to Thursday evening’s Spherical of 16 match in opposition to the Serbian champion.
“I watched the Rangers match in opposition to Dortmund and so they outperformed the German ‘millionaires’,” stated Mladenovic, who performed solely seven video games for Rangers after becoming a member of from Pink Star in 2004.
“Rangers deservedly gained convincingly, and the Scots are actually a bit cocky.”
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Rangers coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst insists there isn’t any conceitedness from his gamers after their victory over Borussia Dortmund and pushed them into the final 16 of the European League to face Pink Star Belgrade.
Ibrox scored a well-known 6-4 combination victory over Dortmund within the knockout spherical after profitable 4-2 away and drawing 2-2 at house final month.
However Van Bronckhorst rejected Mladenovic’s suggestion, saying: “Why are we smug? I do not see any of my gamers being smug – we’re too humble in the meanwhile.
“We get pleasure from being in Europe however we respect each opponent we face and I do not see any indicators of conceitedness in my workforce, in myself or on the membership.
“We’re completely satisfied to be on this spherical and we are going to do the whole lot we will to win this match. However conceitedness shouldn’t be the phrase that involves thoughts once I see my gamers making ready for this match.”
Aaron Ramsey is within the squad to face Ibrox however won’t begin the match as Rangers look to take a step in direction of the quarter-finals of the competitors.
The midfielder returned to the squad for Saturday’s Scottish Premier League recreation in opposition to Aberdeen after lacking 4 matches, however was an unused substitute within the 1-0 win.
Aaron Ramsey is on the workforce for Thursday evening’s recreation
“Aaron will likely be within the workforce, he will not begin,” van Bronckhorst stated.
“With Aaron, it is the identical as any participant on my workforce. You need each participant to be obtainable and capable of play, however you additionally must regulate the circumstances of the gamers.
The Dutchman additionally revealed that Stephen Davis, who has not performed since February 12, will miss once more.
“For us, an important factor is to be sure that now we have the person applications for every participant to get again to health and that is what we’re doing now,” he added.
Midfielder Stephen Davis has not featured since February 12.
“I’m completely satisfied to have Aaron again within the workforce and we’re working onerous to get Stephen again into the workforce as effectively, and for Iannis (Hagi) we all know it’ll take longer, however we all know we are going to at all times have gamers on our workforce. The workforce that wants consideration.”
Earlier than the match inside crowded Ibrox, the supervisor was optimistic about Rangers’ probabilities of reaching one other European victory.
“We’re enjoying with a troublesome workforce that was the winner of the group however I’ve full confidence that we will get end result. We’ll do our greatest to advance to the subsequent spherical.
“We play in numerous methods and we performed in opposition to totally different methods. In Europe, you need to be dynamic.”
