RANGERS SHOWING NO FEAR
Gerrard believes marathon effort can earn reward
PORTO boss Sergio Conceicao once ran 24 miles home to celebrate his side reaching the Portuguese Cup Final.
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is convinced he can drive his rival round the bend tonight – but it will take the best European performance of his Ibrox reign.
The Light Blues face their sternest challenge since Gerrard arrived at the club 17 months ago against a side of genuine European aristocrats.
Porto have played group-stage football in the Champions League 23 times, a record equalled only by Real Madrid and Barcelona.
They missed out this season when they were bundled out at the third qualifying round on away goals by Russian side Krasnodar who struck three times in the first 30 minutes of the first leg at the Estadio do Dragao.
Conceicao’s side hit back over the next two-and-a-half hours with three goals of their own but to no avail as they staggered into UEFA’s secondary competition, rare territory after spending the previous eight years in a row playing with the elite.
Conceicao, a former Porto winger, has been in charge for two years and his methods are sometimes unorthodox.
As Braga boss four years ago, he promised his players he would jog home if they came through the second leg of their semi-final against Rio Ave.
He offered the incentive to avoid complacency after a 3-0 first-leg win – and the subsequent 1-1 saw him and his backroom staff lace up their trainers for the almost marathon run.
Gerrard is also in a rush to make strides with his Rangers team and knows they cannot perform as flatly as they did at the weekend, when they drew 1-1 at Tynecastle.
He said: “If we start the game here like we started against Hearts then we will go away with nothing, for sure.
“With all due respect to Hearts, this is a completely different level of opposition.
“Porto are a good team, a side we respect, but they are not invincible.
“They will give us moments in the game where we will have a chance to execute some good things ourselves.
“We’re not coming here in fear, we don’t feel inferior. We know they have good players but so have we. It will take our best performance to get something from this match. It certainly did when we had to go to Villarreal last season, for what I’d say was a similar size of challenge.
“But I feel as if we’re better than when we went to Villarreal. We found a performance that shocked a few people back then because not many gave us a chance before it.
“I don’t think many give us a chance in this game but in our small group, and in our preparation, we believe we’ve seen enough that if we have a top night, if we can find that top performance, then we could take something away from the match.”
Significantly, perhaps, all three of Gerrard’s defeats in Europe as Rangers boss, out of 24 games played, have come away from home in the group stage of the Europa League.
Individual errors have also cost them against Spartak Moscow, Rapid Vienna and Young Boys and Gerrard added: “We’ll need concentration for 90 minutes, 100 per cent. At this level, in my experience of coaching and playing, you don’t get away with sloppy turnovers or individual errors.
“Top players punish you – and we’re going to be playing against top players.
“Their game plan will be being aggressive, pressing us and forcing us into errors. We have to try to limit our mistakes as much as we can. “If I had to predict a favourite for the group when the draw was made I’d have said Porto. “They’ve got fantastic technical players across the board, a good manager and I really admire the way they play.
“Having said that, we’ve got to believe we can take something out of the game, with a game plan that we all believe in.
“I’ve no doubt we’ll be organised and difficult to play against. But when we regain the ball – and we will – I need my players to show courage and belief and be brave.
“There will be no point working so hard for the ball if we’re going to be turned over and give them it back as that would make for a long night.
“There will be opportunities to counter-attack but for us to flex our muscles here we must keep the ball as much as possible.”
The performance of Krasnodar may give Rangers a crumb of comfort here and while Porto have lost only once in 10 games, winning nine, it came against Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
They defeated Young Boys narrowly by 2-1 and Gerrard added: “That was a 50-50 game in terms of possession and Young Boys had some really good moments at times.
“All the teams in the group are doing everything they can to make it as competitive as possible and it’s wide open. Anyone can get out of this group.
“It will depend who is most consistent over the next four games – and we hope it will be Rangers.”