It wasn’t easy or pleasant but Nico Raskin watched all the same.
The Rangers new boy stood on the Hampden turf a couple weeks back and took it all in as Celtic lapped up their Viaplay Cup triumph. Not because he didn’t share the deep disappointment of the Ibrox faithful who had leapt from their seats and darted for the exits the second the full-time whistle blew. But because he wants to have those painful memories to hand whenever things get tough in the next few weeks. The young Belgian knows he’s going to have to dig deep to help drag Rangers back to the top.
But having sampled just how bitter the taste of defeat is in Glasgow, he’s determined to ensure he never has to go through the experience again. Raskin said: “When they celebrated with the fans, when they were making the noise, you cannot hide from this. You are there so you listen, you watch and it’s painful for everybody. For us, for our families and for the fans. But it’s going to give us power for the next time we’re going to play the cup final.
“I was so sad after the final because you watch the other team celebrating and it gives you a bad feeling. But at the same time it gives you the power to get back, then next time remember what happened and give more so we don’t feel the same feeling after the game.”
Surprisingly left on the bench by gaffer Michael Beale, Raskin didn’t have the time needed to turn the situation around when he was finally thrown on with 25 minutes left and Gers trailing Ange Postecoglou’s team 2-1. The consensus among the Ibrox support was the boss had called it wrong with his team selection, an argument given some weight by Raskin’s increasingly influential displays in the two games since.
But there were no complaints from the January recruit, who said: “No, I wasn’t surprised (to be on bench) because I’m new, the boys deserved to play, they went to the final so, of course, they deserved to play.”
Losing at Hampden was the second time he has been through the heartache of falling at the final hurdle. In 2021, his old club Standard Liege came up short against Gent as they missed out on landing the Belgian Cup after a 2-1 defeat.
Now Raskin hopes it will be third time lucky in the Scottish Cup. Beale’s side will have to fight their way past tomorrow’s quarter-final opponents Raith first but Raskin already has June 3 circled in his diary as he looks to put right his previous disappointments.
He said: “That’s why I came here because it’s important as a football player to win a collective trophy.
“For now, I’ve lost two cup finals so I want to make sure we’re going to win the third one and then win more and more and more.
“The first final I lost was in Belgium, we were better than the other team but we missed chances. Then everybody saw what happened in the last cup final.
"Now it gives me the power to go forward and hopefully win something on the 3rd of June. At Rangers, we need to win every year, we have to go back to Hampden and take it home now.
“We are all sad about the final. It’s still in our head and now we want to focus and win this cup, it’s almost like we have to win so yeah, we are all looking forward to the game tomorrow.”
Gers may have been one-paced and predictable in the face of Celtic’s relentless pressure at Hampden but with Raskin teaming up with Ryan Jack and Todd Cantwell in a new-look midfield, Gers were anything but for 45 minutes against Kilmarnock on Saturday and the full 90 during Wednesday’s enthralling 4-1 Easter Road victory.
Raskin added: “We played good football, we didn’t panic after the goal. We kept our confidence and got a goal back fast for 1-1 then we just played our game.
“If we focus on ourselves and play at our tempo and our level we can beat everybody. We just need to focus on ourselves and keep our standards high to win every game.
“The manager wants to play good football. He wants to play with the fast passing and good connections with the team. That’s what we try to do and like I say, if we play our level, our tempo, I think it’s going to be very good.”
