Tomarov: Visa woes over, it’s game on now

RANGERS

UFA manager Sergei Tomarov played down his side’s visa worries as insisted the Russians are fully focused on halting Rangers.

It was reported over the weekend that Tomarov’s men feared they might be kicked out of the Europa League.

Delays in securing the required paperwork needed to enter the UK ahead of tomorrow’s play-off first leg at Ibrox left them sweating on their place in the competition.

However, disaster was averted on Monday when Ufa got the seal of approval from the UK government – but only after Tomarov and his squad were forced to visit the British Consulate just hours before taking on Moscow Dynamo in the Russian capital.

His side suffered a 3-0 defeat to Dynamo but Tomarov, pictured, insists there will be no hangover from the drama when they take on Steven Gerrard’s men. “We didn’t really have an issue with the visas but we had problems with the time as we only found out we were coming here on Thursday, so we had very limited time to apply,” he said.

“We played a match on Monday and the British Consulate is based only in Moscow and St Petersburg and we had to allow time to travel there.

“All the Russianspeaking players had to go to the consulate, even those who did not travel with us today because we were unaware if there might be any injuries or other unexpected delays, so everybody had to go.

“As soon as we walked out of the embassy we put it all behind us.”