THE draw for the third qualifying round of the Champions League yesterday may have presented his team with a notionally outstanding opportunity to claim a place in the group stage of the tournament, but Walter Smith was in no mood to muse upon the prospective showdown with Aalborg it delivered.
If Rangers can overcome Kaunas in Lithuania on Tuesday night, they will almost certainly then face the Danish champions who hold a 5-0 lead from the first leg of their second qualifying round assignment against Bosnian side Modrica.
It is the pre
carious balance of Rangers' own tie against Kaunas which is fully occupying Smith's mind, however, after Wednesday night's goalless first leg at Ibrox swept away any sense that a place in the third qualifying round would prove little more than a formality for last season's Uefa Cup finalists.
"My reaction to the draw is a simple one," said the Rangers manager. "We just need to make sure we are in it, never mind who we could be playing. I don't think it's right to comment on something that we are not in yet. We need to work hard on our game next week. We still have a lot to do."
Today's friendly against Liverpool at Ibrox could now be viewed as a distraction for Rangers, sandwiched as it is between the two legs of arguably their most important European tie of the season, but Smith believes it may help them develop the kind of intensity they badly lacked against Kaunas in midweek.
"We were actually trying to get a home game of this level before the first leg against Kaunas, but couldn't arrange it," he revealed. "It always brings a little bit of an edge to your team. We did that last season with the pre-season games against Chelsea and Ajax and they were good for us before we went into the Champions League qualifiers. So I'm hoping this game against Liverpool will have the same effect on us ahead of Tuesday night in Kaunas.
"Regardless of what stage of the season it is, you always need a bit of sharpness in these type of games. Kaunas defended really well on Wednesday, but we could have been a wee bit brighter in and around the penalty area.
"We need that little bit of something extra, a little bit of a lift in our game, if we are hoping to go through. We know that we can play better than we did on Wednesday night. That's the main aspect of it for us. Anything else that goes on around it, we can't change. Playing better is something we can do something about. If we do, then we will have the chance to go through and that has got to be our focus."
Madjid Bougherra, signed from Charlton Athletic for £2.5million on Thursday night, will be eligible to play for Rangers in Europe from the third qualifying round onwards. Smith expressed his pleasure at securing the services of the Algerian international whom he has been tracking for almost a year and who may initially be deployed in midfield.
"He comes strongly recommended to us," said Smith. "Adam Owen, our sports scientist, worked with him at Sheffield Wednesday and told us about him. We started looking at him last season but it has taken a bit of time to get him here. We are delighted to have got him. Although his position is centre-half, he can play as a midfielder as well. He is a good footballer. We are a little bit short in the midfield area at the moment, so it certainly helps us from that aspect.
"He got the opportunity to go to the Premier League with West Brom and when that happens you start to get a bit of foreboding and think that he will go there. But he was keen to come to us and that swayed it in the end."
Smith is understood to remain interested in Cardiff City defender Glenn Loovens and Sunderland midfielder Dickson Etuhu, while efforts to secure last season's loan signing Steven Davis on a permanent deal from Fulham could yet be revived. Rangers, however, also need to offload unwanted players such as Daniel Cousin and Alan Gow.
"It's a matter of what you consider to be value, both in terms of a transfer fee and wages," he added.
Rangers supporters may get their first glimpse of Bougherra this afternoon, although the 25-year-old spent much of the summer on World Cup duty with Algeria and has barely trained this week as he travelled to speak to those clubs attempting to sign him.
"We will see how he feels tomorrow before deciding if he plays any part in the game," said Smith.
Carlos Cuellar will definitely miss out on facing Liverpool strikers Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane. The Spanish central defender is still struggling to recover from the calf injury he sustained during a friendly outing at Raith Rovers last week.
"He has a wee chance of playing against Kaunas on Tuesday," reported Smith, "but I'd say it is only a slight chance."
The full article contains 870 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
