Steven Gerrard not afraid of Europa League glory

 

Steven Gerrard says Rangers will dare to dream of going all the way in the Europa League.

The newly crowned Scottish champions have ambitions of making their mark on the continent and Gerrard is refusing to put a limit on their targets after Thursday’s 1-1 last-16 draw with Slavia Prague.

The Czechs dumped Brendan Rodgers’ Premier League big guns Leicester out of the competition in the previous round but Gers more than held their own after a sticky start at the Eden Arena.

The result – and Filip Helander’s away goal – now puts the Light Blues in a commanding position to progress to the quarter-finals following next Thursday’s second leg at Ibrox.

And Gerrard said: “One hundred per cent we’ll dream. We’ve been dreaming since we qualified. There’s no harm in dreaming.

“But at the same time you’ve got to have respect for the opposition.

“You’ve got to realise the challenge and what’s coming up against you.

“This is a side who have gone away to a Premier League team and won comfortably, so in no way can we get carried away.

“It’s always nice to dream but we probably have to find our biggest performance of the season at Ibrox to get this done.”

Like Gers, Slavia are unbeaten in their domestic title race and lead the Czech First League by 11 points after 22 games.

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The Ibrox squad enjoyed their wild weekend of celebrations after being declared Scottish champions for the first time in a decade – but there was an early sickener in Prague as Nicolae Stanciu rifled a stunning opening goal past Allan McGregor.

Helander tapped home to square the match up as the colour returned to Rangers’ cheeks.