ROBIN Propper tonight insisted the gulf in quality between Rangers and Celtic is not that large despite the Ibrox club losing the Premier Sports Cup final to their city rivals at Hampden.
Propper felt that Philippe Clement’s side had competed well with Brendan Rodgers’ team during the dramatic encounter - which finished 3-3 at the end of the 120 minutes - even though they ended up being beaten 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out.
And the Dutch centre half is confident the Govan outfit can record an elusive victory over the Parkhead outfit, who are 11 points clear of them in the William Hill Premiership, when they play them at home in the league at the start of January.
“Of course it was disappointing,” he said. “On the other hand, it was a really nice game to play. We had moments to lead, to win that game. “It felt, of course, really disappointing in the end. But I think we had some character today. We stayed positive as a team. We tried our best. In the end, you want to win. But I think if you see the whole game, we can be proud of ourselves.”
Propper continued: “It's one game. And you want to win this game because then directly you have a cup and a medal. But in this game there was not that big of a gap. It's 3-3 and in the end it's a lottery and penalties. So, the gap today wasn't that big.
“We want to show it every game. If that's possible, we try our best. Today, it was a 50-50 game. It's 3-3. We showed some character twice. We had moments we could win, overtake Celtic. We have that in our team. So, we have to be focused on that to show that every day.”
Propper stressed that nobody in the Rangers dressing room had held Ridvan Yilmaz, who had his penalty saved by Celtic keeper Kasper Schmiechel in the shoot-out, responsible for the loss.
“You know that this is part of the game,” he said. “It's a lottery in the end. He has to keep his head up and he will do that. It was the ultimate small margins when it comes down to penalty kicks.”
