Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton react to Rangers Europa League draw v Braga
Ally McCoist believes Rangers have got an ‘excellent’ draw in the Europa League against Braga, while Chris Sutton says it’s an open goal they ‘can’t afford to miss’.
Rangers progressed to the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since making the final back in 2008 and they’ll face Portuguese outfit Braga for a place in the semi-finals against either RB Leipzig or Atalanta.
McCoist and Sutton, who were appearing on BT Sport’s Scottish Football Extra, believe Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side have a great chance of progressing to the latter stages and think they’ll be delighted with the draw.
“It’s a brilliant draw, it really is,” he said. Just from the travelling point of view, they know the opposition well. I think it’s an excellent draw for Rangers, I’m really pleased with this one.
“Of course they are [beatable]. Listen, I think you’d have to say with Rangers’ current form in Europe anybody is beatable.
“But certainly, with Red Star winning that group and Braga finishing second, it doesn’t always work that way but it’s certainly a tie Rangers will be very, very pleased with but not over confident.”
“In footballing terms this is an open goal for Rangers,” Sutton added. “They’ve come so far in this tournament, knocking out Dortmund, big, big deal. Red Star, tough tie. But this is an open goal Rangers can’t afford to miss. What an opportunity.”
Opportunity
Sutton is absolutely just trying to add some pressure to a rival team, but he’s right that the club won’t have a better chance than this to progress.
Braga is the team that everyone would have wanted to come up against and Rangers will be delighted by their pathing through to the final too having avoided Barcelona and West Ham.
McCoist summed it up perfectly. This is a tie that the club should have full confidence of winning and progressing, especially after beating them over two legs back in 2020.
But the team cannot be complacent and must stay focused throughout the final run in of the season, with a Scottish title race still to battle for as well as the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic too.
It’s a glorious opportunity to have a superb season and end with a trophy or three, but they need to be at their very best in order to be successful.
In other Rangers news, Barry Ferguson sends Rangers warning, Europa League triumph would be biggest ever