Barry Ferguson wants his Rangers players to emulate the side he captained to the Uefa Cup final in 2008 when they attempt to get past Athletic Bilbao and reach the last four of the Europa League on Thursday night.
Interim head coach Ferguson has led his squad to Spain on the eve of the quarter-final second leg with the tie finely balanced at 0-0 following last week’s game in Glasgow.
Rangers had to play the vast majority of the first leg with 10 men after Robin Propper was dismissed after just 13 minutes, but produced an heroic defensive performance with Liam Kelly saving a late penalty from Alex Berenguer to boost their chances of progression.
“The game’s wide open, these are the games you want to be involved in as a player and a manager,” Ferguson said.
“We’re up against a very good team with a very good home record but we’ve worked very hard this week.
“We will need the same work ethic, that team I played in was very workmanlike. I want to see that. You need to be able to keep the ball, we’ll need to defend and we need to be better in possession.”
Ferguson was boosted by the news that Bailey Rice, Leon Balogun, Vaclav Cerny and Ridvan Yilmaz all trained on Wednesday with the former coming off on a stretcher after surprisingly making just his second start for the club last week.
And the interim Ibrox boss maintains Athletic are favourites to win the tournament having seen them up close in the first leg.
“We know their qualities and strengths,” he said. “We also have to know their weaknesses.
“They’re favourites for the competition, my opinion hasn’t changed.
“Last Thursday, you work on things that we wanted to do during the game, but that went out of the window when Robin was sent off. We had to surrender so much possession.
“Hopefully tomorrow will be different. We had a day off after Aberdeen and on Tuesday and Wednesday we’ve worked hard.”
Ferguson can also call upon both John Souttar and Mohamed Diomande who were banned from the first leg and he is particularly pleased to have the Scotland international defender available.
“Soutts is a big player,” he said. “I’ve always rated and admired him and when you work with him you see how good he really is. He is one of the leaders in the team and having him back is a big help to us.
“The players understand the final will be here and their players will be desperate to get to the final but we’re in front of them. They’re going to come at us we will be prepared for that.
“I already know my team, the players know my team and hopefully they’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
Ferguson says his side are abundantly aware of what is expected of them and he stressed the importance of discipline, given Rangers have had a player sent off in their past two outings.
“A lot of discipline,” Ferguson said, when asked what will be required on Thursday. “It only takes one member of the team to switch off and if that happens they will hurt us.
“The players understand that. You’ve got responsibilities with and without the ball so we need to be set up really strong.
“You want to play, but those days are over for me. This is the next best thing. I’m loving every single minute of it. You’ve got to look forward to and embrace these occasions.
“This would rank right up there. Six weeks ago I couldn’t have imagined I’d be in this scenario but it’s not about me. It’s about my group of players going to show their qualities at the highest level.”
