Cyriel Dessers has shared what was said inside the Ibrox home dressing room after Rangers were knocked out of the Europa League by Benfica.
The Light Blues earned a superb 2-2 draw in Lisbon last week and took confidence in the fact they were playing at home in the second leg.
The Ibrox roar was a massive factor in the club’s incredible journey to the Europa League Final in 2022 and more of the same noise and passion from the stands was required to topple Benfica.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as Rangers simply failed to turn up. The Portuguese giants were not troubled much defensively and managed to secure their progression via a solo Rafa Silva goal after a VAR offside check.
The tempo or speed in Rangers’ play on the ball wasn’t fast enough to trouble Benfica’s shape but striker Cyriel Dessers thinks the first-team squad gave their all.
He said the performance can be looked back on with pride and that was the general feeling inside the Ibrox home dressing room after the game.
Cyriel Dessers shares dressing room post-match thoughts
Dessers shared what was said between the players after losing on Thursday. As quoted in the Daily Record, he said: “I just want to keep going, to keep this feeling.
“We have two more months. It’s one big, massive push. We have the international break and then it’s a case of keep on going.
“We were speaking about it in the showers, it was a really heavy game against Benfica. The pace of the game was so high. But everyone can see we’re really fit, we’re really hungry and we just want more.
“We want to keep going, keep pushing. We will. You feel the legs after a while, especially against a good team like Benfica.
“But then you have this synergy with the fans. They lift us. You have a corner kick and you feel the energy in the stadium. That gives us the energy to keep pushing. That’s what we need from our fans.
“Staying top of the league going into the international beak is massive for us The good thing is that I think you have a really good performance on Thursday. Unfortunately we went out of Europe but we did it with a performance to be proud of.
“This has to give us confidence. We need to take the positives from the game and just go hard again. The highest priority this season is the league. We need to do everything for that.
“There’s so much for us to play for this season. We’re well aware of that in the locker room. It’s good that this group has the experience to take the positives from Thursday’s game into Dundee and go again.
“If we can bring this level that we’ve shown in Europe to the league and the cup, beautiful things are possible.”
