Michael Beale admits Rangers will need to produce the finest showing of his tenure as manager if they are to secure a Champions League spot with victory over PSV Eindhoven.
Rangers head into the first leg of their play-off round clash aiming to knock the Eredivisie giants out of the competition for the second successive season following their historic triumph last term.
That achievement proved to be a mixed one for Giovanni van Bronckhorst as the Dutchman saw his side outclassed by Liverpool, Napoli and Ajax and finish pointless in Group A.
Rangers are already guaranteed a place in the Europa League and will have continental football to look forward to between now and Christmas regardless of their result against PSV.
But Beale will go all out to secure the win that would bank Rangers a significant UEFA bounty and give the Englishman the highest-profile victory of his Ibrox reign.
“I think so, yeah,” Beale said when asked if he needed the biggest performance of his Rangers tenure. “I think this is a big, big game. It is so early in the season but it is clear it is a big game.
“We won’t know if either team is really ready because neither team has had the challenge of a team like this in the pressure of this game, which is huge for both clubs. Certainly, if we were to come out of the other side of it, it would be two really big performances.
“Listen, what we are trying to do at the moment is play the game that is in front of us and the competition that is in front of us. Once we get this first leg out of the way, we have got a huge game in the league at the weekend. Everyone is aware of that.
“Every three days at Rangers there is a huge game, the expectation is huge. You see the outcry after a defeat in this city, it is massive. Even sometimes when you win not everyone is happy with the way that you won, the team that you picked or the changes you made. It is par for the course.
“I wouldn’t want to trade with anyone else for the position and the job the position that I am sat in, that expectation is what you want. You can call it pressure.
“My team play against an excellent team in the Champions League and in that there is a lot to enjoy.
“It is important that we embrace it, give it everything. We won’t think about the other competition until this competition is not there for us.”
