VALENCIA TIE STILL WINNABLE

Valencia (2) v Celtic (0) Mestalla, 5.55pm

SKIPPER Scott Brown admits Celtic have to produce their very best performance if they are to avoid a Europa League exit to Valencia tonight.

The Spanish side were comfortable and impressive 2-0 winners in the first leg of the last-32 tie in Glasgow last week and are favourites to finish the job off at the Mestalla.

The Scottish champions have never won in Spain and the Hoops midfielder (above) knows it will take a monumental effort to change that.

He said: “Spain is always a hard place to come, Valencia are a top quality team and we need to bring our A game tomorrow.

“We’ve learned a lot in the last week and how they play, how we can match up to them.

“We need to press high up the park and start putting them under pressure.

“It is hard. We are 2-0 down and we want to stay in European football for as long as possible.

“Last week wasn’t a great start, but it is how we bounce back and we believe we have the players and quality to do that but we need to make sure it’s a top quality performance.

“We have to make sure that we create the chances and take them. We also have to be patient and not chase the game for 90 minutes.

“We relish every European game, the fans have come over in their thousands and hopefully we can put a good performance on for them.”

Brendan Rodgers, meanwhile, insists the tie is not over.

He said: “It was disappointing last week but we can come back again and that is something that is very much within our culture.

“We know it is a challenge but if I look at the game and ask myself do we have a chance? Of course we do.”

RANGERS set up a Scottish Cup quarter-final with Aberdeen at Pittodrie after seeing off Kilmarnock 5-0 in a fifth round replay last night. Alfredo Morelos netted four goals with Andy Halliday also scoring.