Nico Raskin believes Rangers have what it takes to do ‘something amazing’ in Bilbao this week and book their spot in the last four of the Europa League.
The Belgian played a key role in securing a goalless draw for his side — who played the majority of the contest with 10 men following Robin Propper’s early red card — against Athletic Bilbao in Thursday evening’s quarter-final first leg in front of a raucous home support at Ibrox.
And while Raskin knows both he and his team-mates will arrive at the Estadio de San Mames as underdogs, he is confident they can upset the odds and keep their European adventure rolling on.
‘Yeah, we can (go through), if we put everything in it, and follow the plan,’ said Raskin. ‘We need a bit of luck like every game, but we are confident and that is the way to look forward.
‘It is going to be 11 against 11. We showed with 10 against 11 that we could compete, so I hope 11 versus 11 we stick to the plan.
‘We are going to need to defend the same way, run, make the extra effort, do the dirty work and put in some quality offensively.
Nico Raskin is confident Rangers can upset the odds once again in Bilbao next week
Liam Kelly was the hero on Thursday after saving a penalty to keep the scores level
Next up for Rangers is a trip to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen in the last of the pre-split fixtures
‘So let’s just go next week and look forward to doing something amazing.
‘We have fans travelling, we want to make them proud. It’s going to be a difficult game but I think we all believe it.’
Before then, Raskin and Co face a trip to Pittodrie tomorrow for a lunchtime kick-off against Aberdeen, and while the race for the Premiership title is already all but over, the 24-year-old is determined to ensure the team don’t allow standards to drop.
‘I think those standards have never been down in Europe,’ he said. ‘But the important thing is the way we show up against Aberdeen, the way we go and attack.
‘So now we plan to recover. We are not going to have a lot of days to prepare but we have been through this the whole season, so it is going to be about recovery and preparation on Saturday and we go again on Sunday and try to do something good.’
While his side have so far been able to raise their levels for the European nights against the likes of Olympiakos, Spurs, Fenerbahce and Athletic Bilbao, it has been their failings on the domestic front which have seen the squad come in for heavy criticism this season.
Last weekend’s defeat to Hibernian was Rangers’ seventh top-flight loss of what has been a largely forgettable campaign, but while Raskin admits neither results or performances haven’t been up to scratch, he insists there is no disharmony within the dressing room — as demonstrated by their most recent display.
‘We are united,’ added Raskin. ‘Playing 10 against 11 for the whole game you can see we are a team, we help each other.
‘You could see on the pitch that nobody had the head down or complaining, we knew it would be even harder but we were there for it.’
