IBROX captain James Tavernier has set his sights on equalling Ally McCoist’s goalscoring record in Europe - after being left out of the legendary striker’s all-time Rangers XI.
Tavernier has netted for the Glasgow club on no fewer than 20 occasions in continental competitions – just one shy of the mark that McCoist set during his glorious heyday.
The right back is disappointed he has not been on target in the Europa League this season and confessed that he would love to add to his impressive haul in the second leg of the last 16 double header with Benfica this evening.
McCoist, who will be giving his expert analysis on the match tonight for TNT Sports, named his ultimate Rangers team for the host broadcaster last week and there was no place in his line-up for the free-scoring defender.
The Englishman was not in the slightest bit put out about the snub – but he stated that he would enjoy getting a goal in the rematch with the Portuguese champions and moving alongside the Scot in the European scoring charts.
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“I think I need to,” he said. “I haven’t scored a European goal since we started the group stages so I am definitely due one.
“I will obviously try to do my defensive duties and help the team to keep a clean sheet, but if I can help the lads up top then I will definitely try to do that.”
“But it would be sweet (to go level with McCoist). I will just keep kicking on and going after the stats. But as long as we go through I will be happy.”
Tavernier stressed that Rangers will be going on the offensive from kick-off against Benfica tonight and expressed hope that the sell-out 50,000-strong crowd will give the cinch Premiership leaders an important edge over their Primeira Liga rivals.
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“That’s the thing about European football,” he said. “It is always an open game so you really enjoy it. Especially at Ibrox. You saw what the atmosphere was like during the run to the final (of the Europa League in 2022) and what the fans can bring to the table.
“We will need that tomorrow night. But we have to give the fans a performance so they can get behind us. We are going to be on the front foot from the whistle and take the game to them.”
The full back is likely to have Scott Wright ahead of him on the right flank this evening due to the injuries which Dujon Sterling and Ross McCausland, who took part in training at Auchenhowie yesterday, have picked up.
The loss of Sterling, who scored his first goal in senior football in the first leg in Lisbon last week, is a blow to the hosts, but their skipper has complete confidence that whoever manager Clement selects will rise to the occasion against Roger Schmidt’s side.
“I think that has been the story since the gaffer has come in,” he said. “The squad has really been together in what we have tried to do. We work on it on the training field when we are against each other.
“Everybody knows what position they need to do so or if they have to go into a different position. Obviously Dujon is going to be a big miss, but we have got players who can take his place and do a job for the team.”
Tavernier was angry about the penalty which German referee Tobias Stieler awarded Benfica in the Estadio da Luz last week for a John Souttar handball – but he has no concerns about how Slovakian match official Ivan Kruzliak will handle proceedings this evening.
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“I didn’t see the penalty incident in real time,” he said. “But when you look back at it you can clearly see it hits his head and it hits his arm afterwards. I would have thought they would have shown more angles of it, but they didn’t so it was given.
“We have seen with the history of VAR, whether it be Premier League, Champions League or Europa League, there is always going to be human error inside it. So we have just got to deal with it.
“Maybe harsher challenges can happen in our league compared to Europe. Whatever happens on the day, you have just got to deal with it. We know the European referees are more on point when it comes to any fouls. They can easily give a yellow card out quickly.
“But we have seen that happen in our league so we just got to use our experience of how to play the game. You have just got to deal with how the game breaks down.”
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