After the Ibrox team claimed a Europa League draw, Olympiacos defender Panagiotis Retsos commended Rangers manager Philippe Clement for researching them. Nice manager Franck Haise called their Europa League matchup against the Light Blues this month a must-win match.
After attacker Cyriel Dessers equalized, Rangers earned a nice point against the Europa Conference League winners in Athens. The manner the Ibrox guys positioned themselves against them was also credited by Greek international standout Retsos.
“They were very good at shutting down our attacking qualities, so credit to their coach for that,” he stated, implying that Rangers had studied us carefully. And given the performances we had when we won the Europa Conference League the previous season, I can see why.
I would have wanted us to exercise caution as well if I were them. However, it wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for. We play here with the goal of winning, and we have been doing that lately.
“Due to individual mistakes, we gave up a goal that we shouldn’t have. They take place in football. We have to work on them. I’m not content. We desired the three points since they would have given us a significant edge.
Rangers sit in a respectable tenth place in the new-look tournament and have high hopes of finishing in the top eight which would get them automatic qualification for the Round of 16. Nice battled back from going 2-0 down to Twente Enschede, with ex-Rangers flop Sam Lammers netting for the Dutch side, to rescue a point.
However, they have yet to win a match in their four games so far and sit in 31st place out of the 36 teams. And manager Haise knows they must beat Rangers to have any chance of making the top 24 and the play-offs
He said: “It’s very clear that if we want to continue our progress in this competition, we must win our next game against Rangers at home. That game will be decisive along with our last game of the year against Union Saint-Gilloise.
After four games, we haven’t been able to accomplish that, so we need to win. Since the 2-2 draw was doubtful at one point, we can claim that we were able to remain resilient.
However, since we weren’t at the necessary level, I can’t overlook the opening hour versus Twente. I must accept responsibility for the fact that we haven’t won a game yet, even though the injury to two of our players late on had an effect.”
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