CONNOR GOLDSON has lifted the Premiership title, won the Scottish Cup and reached a European final as Rangers have gone from strength to strength over the last four seasons.
Now he is determined to tick another milestone box by inspiring the Light Blues to a place in the Champions League group stages as he attempts to conquer the continent once again.
Goldson has been an integral part of the team that have restored and enhanced reputations at home and abroad over the course of several memorable campaigns at Ibrox.
The defeat to Malmo at this stage of the competition twelve months ago is one of the few black marks on his remarkable record throughout a distinguished Rangers career.
And victory over Union Saint-Gilloise would take the Englishman another step closer to banishing those Malmo memories and writing another chapter of achievement under Giovanni van Bronckhorst's guidance.
“It’s a box that I would love to tick," Goldson said. “It’s obviously the pinnacle of football and a place where all footballers want to play.
“But at the same time, I don’t think that was the main decision behind me signing my contract.
“Champions League football has been part of the agenda for the past two years and obviously last year we didn’t make it.
“Hopefully this year we can and over the next few years me and this football club can play Champions League football.
“We take a lot of confidence, 100 per cent, from last year, especially with the new manager coming in and settling in Europe.
“Tactically he’s very good and he watches the opposition so much.
“He changes depending on what opposition we are playing and even during games he will change the system.
“We know how to be a bit different tactically and I think that will stand us in good stead. We have had a good pre-season, we are looking strong.
“Obviously the first game of the season against Livi we got a win, it wasn’t our greatest performance but it was always going to be hard going there. We are in a good place.”
Rangers are firm favourites to overcome USG and book their place in the play-off round as Van Bronckhorst aims to deliver group stage football at the first time of asking at Ibrox.
Expectations have risen amongst supporters on the back of their historic run to Seville and the wins over the likes of Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig that saw Rangers raise the bar on the continent.
An aggressive, front foot approach has been one of the hallmarks of Van Bronckhorst's reign and Goldson knows there can be no let up now that Rangers are stepping into the Champions League arena once again.
Goldson said: "That’s the way we want to play, especially at home. If you have 50,000 fans behind you at home, they don’t want to see you sitting off and letting other teams have the ball.
"We have done that in every game that we have played at home under the new manager. Look at last season: the Dortmund games, the Leipzig games.
"Obviously at some point against good teams you are going to have to come back and defend as a team in a block, but the way we want to set up is being aggressive and winning the ball back and getting into as many duels as possible. We know that that gets the fans off their seats so we’ve bought into that.
"There are a few new partners this season that I’m going to have to get used to again but they all know they’re coming in to play the Rangers way and the way the manager wants to play. I’m sure they’ll all get used to it very fast."
