ANDY HALLIDAY hopes Rangers can put their Porto blueprint to good use once again when they face Braga in the Europa League last 32.
Steven Gerrard’s side qualified for the knockout stages by finishing second in Group G behind the Portuguese giants and welcome Braga to Ibrox on Thursday evening.
The Gers battled to a deserved draw in the Estádio do Dragão before goals from Alfredo Morelos and Steven Davis clinched a memorable Ibrox victory.
Braga have emerged as one of the form teams in the Primeira Liga under the guidance of new boss Ruben Amorim in recent weeks and head to Glasgow in high spirits.
But Halliday is confident Gerrard’s side can continue their superb run in the Europa League as they look to clinch a first leg advantage on home soil.
“We are obviously extremely excited, it is probably an experience that a lot of the boys in the changing room haven’t experienced – knockout phase in European competition,” Halliday told the Official Rangers Podcast. “I think we have shown over the last 18 months that we are more than capable of competing at this level.
“Especially in the group stage, although we finished second, I would argue we were the best team over the six games. It is another challenge for us to relish in the knockout phase and hopefully do the job against Braga.
“I think [we are perfectly suited for European football]. Obviously it is a completely different challenge when you are playing domestically and teams are trying to frustrate you and camp in and that is our own challenge to overcome.
“In terms of European football, I think the game is a bit more suited to our style of play and we have got a bit of experience of playing Portuguese teams having played Porto in the Europa League.
“We can look at their games and how they played against Braga and take positives from that. I think we have got to take our own positives from the game against Porto because I thought, especially over there, we were superb and at Ibrox we got an important victory as well, so it is something we are all looking forward to going into.”
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