Rangers have good papers to reach the eighth final of the Europa League. The team of coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst stunted on Thursday evening with a 2-4 victory over Borussia Dortmund. It was his first win as a trainer in a European context. Afterwards, Van Bronckhorst is beaming in front of the UEFA microphone.
“We knew it would be a tough game. Four goals in an away game against Dortmund is a great score for us,” says Van Bronckhorst. “We wanted to bring a good result to Glasgow and we did.” Rangers led 0-2 at halftime and extended that lead to 0-3 shortly after the break. Dortmund wanted to limit the damage as much as possible with a view to the return and eventually came back to 2-4.
What a bang! †
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers FC waltzes over Borussia Dortmund.† ESPN 4
† #BVBFRC pic.twitter.com/Lok7n6EwGB— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) February 17, 2022
Van Bronckhorst realizes that his team has a good starting position. However, he does not consider himself rich yet. “It is quite difficult to win an away game in Europe. I played in the Champions League and Europa League with Feyenoord. I don’t think I ever won an away game then, only some draws,” says Van Bronckhorst. “It’s a great achievement to beat Dortmund here and score four goals, but we’re only halfway there.”
Captain James Tavernier, who opened the score from a penalty kick, also emphasizes that the fight is not over yet. “The first half is over. We have the result we wanted, but we are only halfway there. Everyone has done a fantastic job, but we still have a lot of work to do. Next week we will pretend it is 0-0. Away goals no longer count double, but with 50,000 fans behind us, we want to put in a performance and reach the next round.”
The right back of Rangers also takes the time on the club website to praise the tactics of Van Bronckhorst and his technical staff. “Our game plans have been very good lately. In the last games we have the upper hand and we manage to put pressure on opponents. We have worked very hard in the last few days to come up with a good plan so that Dortmund does not have the time would get the ball. In the first half we hardly had to allow opportunities. In the second half the pressure increased, but we handled that well.”