Steven Gerrard’s Rangers are back at Ibrox on Thursday.
Steven Gerrard’s Rangers should not be feared by Spartak Moscow, according to a man whose side were beaten at Ibrox earlier in the campaign.
Rangers host the newly-managerless Russian giants in the Europa League group stage on Thursday – just over two months to the day since they overcame Spartak’s league rivals FC Ufa in the play-off round.
Yet despite that result, nothing the Gers did on the pitch that night made a positive impression on Ufa’s assistant manager, Dmitri Kirichenko.
“I treated Steven Gerrard the footballer with great respect,” Kirichenko said, as quoted by the Scottish Sun. “He was a very strong player, a leader and a real captain.
“But as a manager, he is still very young and the Rangers game went exactly as we expected, given what happened after the first match. He did nothing special tactically.
“Rangers came and defended for 90 minutes and it was up to us to try and break them down. We knew they would do that. Unfortunately, we could not score twice.
“We missed an incredible chance through Ivan Oblyakov when it was actually easier to score than miss.
“But we can only blame ourselves – everything was in our hands and we should have scored more than one goal. If we had scored our goal earlier, Rangers would have collapsed.
“Spartak certainly shouldn’t be in fear of the Scots.
“It was a great experience for the club and the stadium was full. However, we regret not beating Rangers – we certainly should have.”
Despite playing ten games in this season’s competition, Gerrard’s team remain unbeaten ahead of Spartak’s visit.
And a win for Rangers will ensure they remain top of Group G, with second- and third-placed sides Rapid Vienna and Villarreal playing one another.
This is Gerrard’s first season in senior management, having coached the Under-18s at previous club, Liverpool.
Is Kirichenko just bitter about losing to Rangers?
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