Kris Boyd believes Rangers “have a chance” of overcoming Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce in the Europa League Round of 16 - but he’s under no illusions that they’ll need to be at their absolute best to pull it off.
The Ibrox side travel to Istanbul for the first leg on Thursday night, where they’ll face a Fenerbahce team packed with talent and led by the experienced Mourinho.
With the return leg in Glasgow on March 13, Boyd insists Rangers must rise to the occasion if they are to progress, acknowledging the quality of their opponents but maintaining that Barry Ferguson’s squad have previously shown they are more than capable of competing in this competition.
“I think they’ve got a chance,” the former Rangers striker told Sky Sports.
“There is no doubt that Fenerbahce have got a squad that can cause problems in Europe. We’ve seen that under Jose Mourinho.
“You’ve got him, but you think there’s [Dusan] Tadic, [Allan] Saint-Maximin, [Edin] Dzeko, Fred, [Sofyan] Amrabat. So, there’s some top players there that can cause Rangers problems, add in the Turkish players as well.
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"Will Rangers find a way to get past Fenerbahce? I think they can. They've shown that now against probably better teams in Europe where they find a way to get results.
"Listen, Fenerbahce are coming off the back of a fantastic 3-0 victory over Antalyaspor at the weekend and closed the gap on Galatasaray at the top of the Turkish league.
"Rangers are going to Istanbul, it's going to be hostile, the fans will be right behind Fenerbahce. But if Rangers can come back with a narrow defeat or a draw then it will give them a chance at Ibrox.
"It doesn't matter how vocal or good your own fans are, we've seen big teams crumble in Glasgow in the past, and Rangers will be hoping they can stay in this tie and get them back to Ibrox. There's no doubt they'll have to improve a lot on the performances recently.
"Rangers can't go to Istanbul and try and take the game to Fenerbahce. Rangers have shown that they can hurt teams on the counter-attack. They'll probably set up that way.
"I think having John Souttar back available is huge, [Dujon] Sterling is back as well training, and [Leon] Balogun, so I imagine that will be the back pairing, Balogun and Souttar, which would be a huge upgrade on what Rangers have had recently.
"I'm not making any excuses for Rangers because whatever centre-back pairing is in place especially at Ibrox against Motherwell and Queen's Park should be winning games of football. But for Rangers in Europe, Souttar and Balogun will be a huge lift for them coming back. Then they will be hoping to get their talented players further up the pitch on the ball to make things happen."
