GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST has challenged Rangers to replicate their best performance of the Premiership campaign to end their Champions League section with victory over Ajax.
The Light Blues moved to within a point of Celtic ahead of their trip to Livingston as goals from Antonio Colak, John Lundstram, James Tavernier and Alfredo Morelos secured a commanding win over Aberdeen at Ibrox.
The Dons had a shock win in their sights when Connor Barron opened the scoring but Rangers showed their character and their quality to dominate thereafter and Van Bronckhorst’s side were well worthy of an emphatic win.
Rangers suffered another injury blow when left-back Ridvan Yilmaz was forced off with a hamstring injury inside the opening minutes and Ben Davies didn’t re-appear for the second half due to a groin complaint.
It was an otherwise pleasing afternoon for Van Bronckhorst, though, and the Ibrox boss is now determined to use this fine victory as the springboard for a belated Champions League success as they round off their Group A campaign against Ajax on Tuesday evening.
Van Bronckhorst said: “Just make sure you keep focusing on your strengths. That is what we did today.
“Of course that is not always possible because you are sometimes have a really good opponent against you and those moments will not occur often, especially in Champions League.
“Today you could see that we were dominating, we were aggressive, we won our duels, we kept going forward with every pass that we could and keep them under pressure.
“For me that is positive and it is also a reminder from my team that they can play like this. That is also very positive.
“It is a different competition and it is Champions League again. Our last game in the Champions League.
“We are ready to get the first points of this campaign and I think we have a chance to do so at home against any team.
“A 90 minute performance like this on Tuesday will give us a chance against a quality opponent. If we win the game we have even points with Ajax and that shows really the strength of this group.”
