James Tavernier has singled out James Sands and Ridvan Yilmaz for praise as he admitted Rangers can take positives from defeat to Napoli.
The Light Blues went down 3-0 in Naples as the Italian outfit continued their unbeaten run in both Europe and domestically. It was a fifth win on the trot in the Champions League for the hosts while it was a fifth defeat in the section for Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men.
Napoli also sit top of Serie A with nine wins and two draws while they hammered Liverpool and Ajax so it was always going to be a tall order for the Ibrox men. After losing two goals in the opening 15 minutes, they settled down and created some big chances of their own before a late third goal put the game beyond the visitors. Despite the defeat skipper Tavernier believes there are positives to take compared to other matches in the group while he labelled the performance of Sands and Yilmaz as 'really good'.
READ MORE: Rangers player ratings v Napoli as Tavernier suffers tough night in Naples but Yilmaz offers hope
Next up is a big Premiership showdown with Aberdeen at Ibrox before Ajax make the trip to Glasgow in the final game in the group. Europa League qualification is still possible but would require a five goal victory from Rangers to snatch third spot.
He told BT Sport: "We’re disappointed we lost. I thought we could take some positives compared to the other games in this group. We let two easy goals and I felt we had two big chances we could have levelled the game.
"But there were some performances that were good. James Sands and Ridvan [Yilmaz] were really good. Got to take the positives and build form there.
"They took their chances and that’s the level you’re playing at. We have to learn from it.
"We’ve got to pick ourselves up. We can take some positives, the energy we put in and how we tried to play football. We’ve got to take it into Saturday and try get three points."
Asked what the manager said to the squad after the defeat and if they can defeat Ajax at Ibrox next week, he added: "Basically what I’m saying now. It’s a defeat but it’s a strange one. There were some good positives.
"Any game our objective is to win games. It’s our last game at home and we’ve got to put a performance in for our fans."
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