Hagi relieved spot-kick miss wasn’t costly for his side
IANIS HAGI was relieved his penalty miss didn’t prove costly as Rangers beat Braga.
The Romanian was the hero of the first leg for Steven Gerrard’s side as he netted twice to help the Ibrox side clinch a 3-2 win.
That comeback was built on in Portugal as Ryan Kent netted the only goal of the second fixture to send Rangers through to the last-16.
Rangers spurned a series of chances as they produced an impressive performance at the Estadio Municipal. But a firsthalf penalty save from Matheus didn’t deny Hagi a night to remember. He said: “These things happen. I’m not the only one who has missed a penalty and I think in the future other players will miss too.
“It was actually a really good save. I analysed him and knew that he would always jump left or right so I just tried to kick it in the middle. But the keeper had a great reaction so we have to give him credit.
“In the end I’m just happy that I helped my team by assisting for Ryan to get his goal.
“Not only did I miss the penalty but we had two or three other really good chances in the first half so we needed that goal. In the end it’s good that we got the win.
“It’s too early to speak about [how far we can go in the Europa League]. We just have to wait and see who the next opponent is. But for sure – for sure – we’re not afraid of any other team in this competition.
“There are another two games to play and we just need to make sure we’re really intelligent and play two really great games like we did against Braga. Then we’ll see what happens. I think everybody knows the mentality of this club and how huge it is. For sure they will have a tough time with us.”