MALIK Tillman has stressed that Rangers will take the lessons they have learned from their difficult Champions League campaign into their final game against Ajax and attempt to give their supporters a victory to cheer.
Tillman and his team mates slumped to their fifth straight Group A defeat against Napoli in the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday night when they were beaten 3-0.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side is now in serious danger or finishing with the worst group stage record in the history of Europe’s premier club competition.
However, their Bayern Munich loanee believes they can take encouragement from aspects of their play against the Serie A leaders in Italy, not least the scoring chances they created up front.
The United States internationalist is hoping that Rangers can finish on a high when they take on Dutch rivals Ajax at Ibrox on Tuesday.
“It’s pretty hard to take,” he said of the Napoli defeat. “Those goals that we conceded were not well defended.
“But we created chances in the first half and in the second half that we could have scored but didn’t, so all in all I’d say it was a bad night.
“However, we did create some chances so I think we can look forward to next week and the weekend with confidence.
“In the Champions League you have to be clinical in front of goal, even if you’re like us and are a bit of a smaller team in the Champions League.
“You have to take those chances to get some points and to take something from the game."
Tillman added: “In football and in general you always have to look forward because you can’t change the past. You always learn from these defeats, from these games.
“It’s a big experience for everyone in this team to play in the Champions League. We have to improve and keep moving forward.
“You can always learn. Even teams that win games learn from the experience. This is a massive experience for everyone.”
Rangers have lost all five of their Group A matches and have a -18 goal difference and if they lose by two goals or more to Ajax they will have the worst group stage record since the Champions League started back in 1992.
But last season’s Europa League finalists can also qualify for the preliminary knockout round of that tournament if they win by a 5-0 scoreline.
Tillman acknowledged that is a tall order – but stressed they will fight to the end.
“We want to win every game and go into every game aiming to do that,” he said.
“Especially at home, we want to bring the joy back to our fans and for us as well and get a positive result.
“No way (do we want that record). I think everybody is going to be motivated to finally get a win in the Champions League.
“It’s a massive game for us again and a big challenge. We’’re going to look forward to it and try to win it.
“We go to the game to win it and if it happens, it happens. We’ll try to do our best as we could still reach the Europa League so I that’s our aim.”
Rangers midfielder John Lundstram was ruled out of the Ajax game when he picked up a booking in Naples – but Tillman is confident the side that takes to the field next week will still be competitive.
“We have some injuries that might means we have some guys missing but the team we have is good,” he said.
“The players who came in today that were new played a good game. We always have to improve and play the best that we can, and give everything we have for such big games.”
