Ped: We’ll have full Progres report...

PEDRO CAIXINHA is confident Rangers will be fully prepared for their Europa League clash with Progrès Niederkorn next week.

The draw for the first two rounds of the competition was made in Nyon yesterday afternoon.

And now the countdown is on for Caixinha and his players as they prepare for their first action of the new campaign.

Few Gers fans will know much about Progres but the Portuguese will leave no stone unturned to ensure his side are in the right shape for their return to the continent.

Caixinha said: “We have started to collect our information. We know they are going to have a couple of matches before we play against them, so we want to be present.

“We want to analyse them and we want to do our homework.

“Of course, thinking about our team but also knowing about the opponent we are going to face.

“The return of Rangers to Europe is important for the club and we are going to do everything to be in the group stage.

“Of course, this is the first step and the first level, and we need to pass through it.”

Rangers will host Progres at Ibrox next Thursday night before they make the trip to Luxembourg the following week for the return leg.

A meeting with AEL Limassol or St Joseph’s await in the second round as the Gers look to ensure their return to European action isn’t a fleeting one this season.

The journey to Luxembourg is one of the shorter ones that Rangers could have been handed and Caixinha is pleased to avoid a lengthy flight at this stage of the campaign.

“That is a benefit,” he told RangersTV. “It will be our first match and for the recovery process of the team it is good not to have a long trip.

“We are just waiting to hear when the second leg will be, so I am waiting to know to organise the plan and everything is going according to our first expectations of the process regarding to the plan.”