GERRARD ISN’T RUSSIAN TO IMPRESS
UFA No.2 Dmitri Kirichenko insists Russian rivals Spartak Moscow have nothing to fear against Rangers – because Steven Gerrard the manager isn’t anything special.
Nine-man Rangers held on for a 1-1 draw at Ufa in their Europa League play-off round second leg to reach the groups on aggregate.
The club’s 10-game unbeaten run in Europe is on the line when Spartak visit Ibrox tomorrow.
And UFA assistant Kirichenko said: “I treated Gerrard the footballer with great respect – 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 to 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 easier to score than miss.
“But we can only blame ourselves – everything was in our hands and we should’ve scored more than one.
“If we had scored 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.”