Maribor: Manager Steven Gerrard said Rangers had knocked a quality side out of the Europa League on Thursday after the Scottish club drew 0-0 in Slovenia to beat Maribor 3-1 on aggregate.
After dominating the first leg at Ibrox, Rangers were given a stern test in Slovenia but maintained a clean sheet thanks to some solid defending and an outstanding performance from goalkeeper Allan McGregor, who saved an injury time penalty.
Maribor have been a thorn in the side of Scottish teams recently, knocking Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen and Hibernian out of European competition over the last eight years, and reached the group stage of last year’s Champions League.
“We have knocked a Champions League team out of the qualifiers and they are devastated they had confidence, they had ego coming into this game and they had no respect for us,” Gerrard told RangersTV.
“But, my players have proved over two legs we are better than Maribor, and that pleases me and that gives me great confidence going forward.” Gerrard took over at Rangers in May and has brought in 11 players as he looks to end the dominance of Glasgow rivals Celtic, who have won the league for seven successive years.
Reaching the group stage of the Europa League would also provide much-needed funds for a side that are still recovering from financial problems that saw them reformed in the bottom tier of Scottish soccer in 2012.
Former Liverpool great Gerrard, who was in charge of Liverpool’s academy before taking up his first senior managerial position in Scotland, was delighted with the way his side had come together over the last month.
“We are still all new we are still new as a team and these games are getting upon us on a Thursday, on a Sunday it is a difficult schedule at the moment,” he said.
“But these players are giving everything for me and everything for the fans and more. I can’t speak highly of them enough there are individuals there who deserve a lot of credit Allan McGregor was a mountain for us tonight what a man.” Rangers will next meet Russian side FC Ufa with a place in the Europa League group stage at stake.
The first match will be played at Ibrox next Thursday with the away leg in Russia on Aug. 30 — just three days before Rangers meet Celtic in the first Old Firm derby of the season.
Elsewhere, Zenit St Petersburg overcame a four-goal deficit as they crushed Dinamo Minsk 8-1 in the second leg to advance to the knockout stage of the Uefa Europa League qualification round with a 8-5 victory on aggregate at St Petersburg’s Petrovsky Stadium.
Having lost the first leg in Minsk 4-0, the goals for Zenit on Thursday evening were scored by Leandro Paredes, Christian Noboa, Artem Dzyuba, Sebastian Driussi and Robert Mak.
Seidu Yahaya scored for Dinamo Minsk in the 99th minute.
Zenit has become the second team in the history of Uefa tournaments who have managed to advance into the next round after losing their first game 4-0.
The other such comeback was made by Spain’s Barcelona in the 2016/2017 Uefa Champions League.
Selected results
Universitatea Craiova (ROM) 1 RB Leipzig (GER) 1
RB Leipzig win 4-2 on aggregate
Zalgiris Vilnius (LTU) 0 Sevilla (ESP) 5
Sevilla win 6-0 on aggregate
Zenit (RUS) 8 Dinamo Minsk (BLR) 1 aet
Zenit win 8-5 on aggregate
Dinamo Brest (BLR) 1 Apollon (CYP) 0
Apollon win 4-1 on aggregate
Maribor (SLO) 0 Rangers (SCO) 0
Rangers win 3-1 on aggregate
Feyenoord (NED) 1 Trencin (SVK) 1
Trencin win 5-1 on aggregate
Steaua Bucharest (ROM) 2 Hajduk Split (CRO) 1
Steaua Bucharest win 2-1 on aggregate
Bordeaux (FRA) 2 Mariupol (UKR) 1
Bordeaux win 5-2 on aggregate
Burnley (ENG) 1 Basaksehir (TUR) 0
Burnley win 1-0 after extra time
