Rangers' Walter Smith and Maurice Edu welcome fixture congestion if it will lead to Europa League glory
Rangers manager Walter Smith claims he is thrilled to remain in the Europa League, even though their dramatic triumph over Sporting Lisbon means even more fixture congestion.
Away comfort: Rangers sneaked past Sporting Lisbon on the away goals rule Photo: AFP
By Telegraph staff 9:54AM GMT 25 Feb 2011
The Scottish champions remain in the hunt for four trophies this season following the away goals win in Lisbon. That means they still have to juggle domestic commitments with Europe with a small squad depleted by injury.
But Smith said: "We will have to wait and see how the season unfolds before we see if there is any great impact.
"You can't pick and choose. We would never consider it an inconvenience qualifying for a round in Europe.
"We are pleased to do so. There's a pressure on Scottish clubs to do as well as they can so that our coefficient level gets as high as possible. "
With a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Ibrox, the tie was tipped in the favour of Sporting ahead of last night's match at the Jose Alvalade stadium.
But their away goal advantage was wiped out when El-Hadji Diouf netted the opener and his first goal for Rangers.
The home side looked set to progress when they hit back through goals from former Rangers midfielder Pedro Mendes and Yannick Djalo.
But the Scots left it late when Maurice Edu grabbed the tie's decisive goal in injury-time to make it 2-2 on the night and secure the win on away goals.
Smith said: "We are pleased to get through.
"We started the game slowly but we managed to get a goal. There wasn't much between the teams in the second half at all.
"With the circumstances of getting the goal, we are pleased to progress.
"We are disappointed with the way we lost the first goal as we should have handled it better with the height that we have got.
"Overall it is a system that has been reasonably successful in European games this season. "
Midfielder Maurice Edu has also welcomed the prospect of an even more packed schedule after Rangers' victory.
He said: "It's a problem that we welcome. We would rather have games and the opportunity to win things.
"If you were to ask any professional footballer, they want to be involved in as many games as possible and be in the position to win games and have something to show for it at the end of the season.
"We would definitely have been disappointed to go out. A lot of people have been saying this competition isn't important to us because we want to focus on other games.
"But tonight we definitely showed that it is important to us. We are still involved in a number of competitions and want to go as far as we can in all of them.
"This performance defines what we are as a club. We showed a lot of resilience and desire and determination to fight our way back into the game and get something out of it. "
"To be honest, I thought we were always in the game. We never stopped believing in ourselves.
"We believed we had a chance of getting something out of the game and it showed. We fought until the dying minutes of the game and were able to get the goal to take us through. "
Next up is PSV Eindhoven and Edu added: "There are no easy games but we welcome the challenge.
"We know it's going to be an exciting draw and we are looking forward to it."
el hadji diouf, jose alvalade stadium, yannick djalo, sporting lisbon, former rangers, telegraph staff, decisive goal, scottish champions, european games, goal advantage, pedro mendes, scottish clubs, walter smith, injury time, inconvenience, congestion, scots, trophies, favour, commitments
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