Michael Beale has challenged Rangers to show a ‘big response’ to their Champions League humbling by seeing off Celtic and laying down a marker of their Premiership title intentions.
Rangers head into the first Old Firm showdown of the season with a point to prove and in need of a performance and a result following a mixed start to the campaign that was compounded on Wednesday evening.
Beale saw his side crash to a 5-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven as they missed out on a place in the group stage and dropped into the Europa League.
Rangers will face Real Betis, Sparta Prague and Aris Limassol in Group C but have domestic matters at the forefront of their mind ahead of the visit of Celtic on Sunday.
A defeat on derby day would raise significant questions over Beale and his Ibrox rebuild this summer but the Englishman is confident it is the ideal fixture for Rangers to bounce back and prove themselves this term.
“It’s expected when the scoreline is the way it is,” Beale said when asked about the reaction from the supporters. “We don’t like that, a club of our stature and our size. We should never accept that either.
“There was reason for it in the game we were in. We knew it was going to be tough, I think they are an excellent team.
“They are a very, very good team and we tried to find a way to compete and stay with them as best as we could and in the home leg we did that.
“I thought there were some difficulties for us in the game, everyone can see that and we need to improve. Thankfully we are not playing a team of that level week in, week out. They are a good team and the season will prove that.
“We apologise to the fans for the margin of the result. It’s not nice, it’s not something that you ever like. We really wanted to take the fans and the club back to the Champions League.
“What’s important now is that we show a big response in the coming weeks in the domestic games. The most important thing for me as the head coach is for us to be strong domestically in the cup competitions and the league.
“Europe is an extra. We want to punch above our weight and go as far as we can. But we need to get things right domestically and that’s my focus right now.
“Right now the Europa League draw gives some daylight from the clouds that have been hanging over us the last few days because that becomes very real on the schedule in front of us. There is optimism that we can get out of this group and get into the knockout phase again.”
