Giovanni van Bronckhorst has urged his shellshocked Rangers to use the pain of Parkhead to fuel their mission in Amsterdam.
The Ibrox outfit will begin their Champions League group-stage campaign under a cloud after an Old Firm nightmare. Van Bronckhorst’s team were hammered 4-0 by Celtic after a dreadful display to fall five points off the Scottish Premiership title pace. The Dutchman now takes his side to his homeland for their section opener against Ajax and the boss wants the feelings of anger and dismay at the Parkhead capitulation to fire them up for the Amsterdam encounter.
Van Bronckhorst said: “Of course, we have a big game on Wednesday now, but you should feel the way you are feeling now. It’s a big loss for us, so you should feel the disappointment. We have to take this result on the chin, learn from it and move on. Then we look forward to Wednesday.”
Rangers were sleepy and slack against their biggest rivals and paid a heavy price as their hosts dismantled them. It was a horror repeat of their February fold in the East End as, just as they had done seven months previously, the Light Blues fell 3-0 down and out by half-time to Ange Postecoglou’s high flyers.
Van Bronckhorst watched a performance littered with individual errors and collective misjudgement as they slumped in a shocker. The manager’s team did not learn their lessons and he said: “It’s hard when you go like that in the first-half.
“It was the same in February. It makes it difficult, but in the second half we were a bit better on the ball.
“But then again we gifted another goal. In those moments you need to recognise when to build up and when not to build up. We gave three goals away. I’m very disappointed with the loss. In the first-half we gifted them two goals.
“They were very dangerous at set-pieces with quick free-kicks and quick throw-ins. For both goals we weren’t ready. We were not alert enough.
“It’s very disappointing to lose, but it’s also the way we gave the goals away. You never feel good when you lose big games like this so I’m very disappointed by the performance.”
In terms of the title race, the manager’s next trip to Aberdeen which comes three days after Amsterdam now takes on additional significance. If Rangers ship more points in the Granite City, additional ground is likely to be lost in the flag fight and van Bronckhorst told RTV: “We didn’t give the game we wanted for the fans and that’s even more disappointing for me.”
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