Rangers will travel to Spain knowing that the most unlikely of scenarios is still in their hands against Athletic Club.
A 0-0 draw was well-deserved given the sending off of Robin Propper after just 13 minutes, something that Jose Mourinho warned Rangers about.
Liam Kelly was the hero of the hour with his penalty save, however, it was a collective effort from an organised Rangers squad.
Technically, that save was the only one that Athletic had on target up until the closing stages with Dujon Sterling’s brutally soft hand-ball incident ruling the other out.
Ernesto Valverde would have been thinking that his team had a chance to kill the game off at Ibrox, instead, he has admitted how Rangers can beat them in the second leg.
Athletic Club boss gives Rangers game plan hint
Speaking after the game, Valverde is content to be going back to Spain for the second leg but was frustrated that his side couldn’t break Rangers down:
“Sometimes we struggle to break down deep-lying defences. It is a game I would have liked to win. There is still a week left to go.
“We had chances but didn’t have that clarity in front of goal to decide the game. We have to keep working.
“You could never doubt the effort Rangers had playing with one man less. The VAR stoppages did break up the game a bit.
“I wouldn’t say I am satisfied with the result overall but it is 0-0 and we have to play at home next week we will see what happens. You have to manage knockout games.
“We are not happy because we could have got a better results but we have another opportunity next week.
“We played against ten men for a large part of the game. We had opportunities to score, including the penalty, but we didn’t. That’s football, but the key thing is that we had chances. Whoever wins [the second leg] will go through.”
How should Rangers set up to beat Athletic?
Valverde has basically told Rangers how to set-up next week.
Instead of Cyriel Dessers with Vaclav Cerny in support, Ferguson should go for the increased mobility of either Hamza Igamane or Danilo.
What he should also do is have more pace on either wing.
If this means playing Jefte or Ridvan Yilmaz on the left and the two full-backs together, then this is what Ferguson should do to improve Rangers’ chances of progressing.
Rangers don’t need to go toe-to-toe.
Walter Smith got to a European final being pragmatic and Ferguson can do the same.
The early red card gave Rangers a different set of cards to play with, but it doesn’t mean that the odds are stacked against them.
