Gers star mobbed for Europa tickets

Ryan Kent has been caught in the ticket scramble for Seville as Rangers prepare for the Europa League final against Eintracht Frankfurt next Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of Rangers fans will travel to Spain for the Light Blues’ first European final in 14 years although Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s side have only been allocated 9,500 tickets for the 43,000-capacity Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium.

Winger Kent, 25, will realise an ambition by playing in the final but before that he has to cope with ticket requests although he admits the players got “quite a few”.

He said: “I’ve got family I didn’t even know I had asking for tickets. It’s great for everybody’s family to be involved in something like this.

“It’s incredible for everyone associated with the football club.

“On a personal level it’s something I’ve always strived for in my career, to try and get to the top of European football and it’s an opportunity I’ll be relishing.

“Without a doubt it’s the biggest game of our careers. I don’t think we’ll let the occasion get the better of us. We’ll go into the game with the same mindset as we’ve had throughout the competition.

“We’ve come up against some top-class opposition and nothing changes going into the final.

“We’re confident, we’ve been confident throughout the whole tournament. Without being naive, we are going in there to win, that’s for sure, but we won’t get ahead of ourselves.”

Rangers reached the last 16 of the competition in the previous two seasons under Steven Gerrard but have gone all the way under Dutch boss Van Bronckhorst.

Kent believes the

European runs in recent campaigns have been helped by the absence of expectation which has now changed as they ready themselves to take on the third Bundesliga club in this campaign after beating Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig.

He said: “I think in previous years there has probably been less expectation in these games.

“I don’t think anyone going into this season would have expected Rangers to reach the final of this competition.

“It’s a platform where we can really showcase ourselves under less pressure.

“All that changes now going into the final. Everybody is expecting us to go and win, ourselves included.”

Boss Giovanni Van Bronckhorst will ring the changes for the trip to Gorgie today and is likely to rest several key players.

Kemar Roofe continues his recovery from a knee injury and Ryan Jack is working his way back from a knock while defender Filip Helander (foot), striker Alfredo Morelos (thigh) and attacker Ianis Hagi (knee) are out for the season.

Toby Sibbick has been declared fit for Hearts. The defender was taken off on a stretcher against Motherwell in midweek with what looked like a knee injury but has recovered.

John Souttar and Craig Halkett (both ankle) could come into the reckoning but Beni Baningime remains sidelined long term with cruciate damage.

Bosss Robbie Neilson said: “It’s the last game of the season at Tynecastle in what’s been a good season – we want to go out on a high.

“We’re ready and looking forward to it. How Rangers approach it is entirely up to Rangers so we’ll wait and see.”