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Braga have NOTHING to fear against Rangers in Europa League tie says Carlos Carvalhal

CARLOS CARVALHAL insists his Braga side have NOTHING to fear ahead of their Europa League crunch with Rangers.

The Portuguese coach was at Ibrox last Sunday to see Gers fall to a crushing 2-1 defeat to Celtic.

Braga boss Carvalhal is ready to pile on Rangers agony after Celtic defeat
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Braga boss Carvalhal is ready to pile on Rangers agony after Celtic defeatCredit: Reuters
Rangers hope to be all smiles on Thursday night once again as they target away win
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Rangers hope to be all smiles on Thursday night once again as they target away winCredit: Willie Vass

Now Carvalhal is desperate to pile on the agony in Thursday night’s quarter-final first leg in northern Portugal.

Asked about any fears over facing Rangers, the ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea manager said: “No, we’ve no fear.

“I knew lots of their players from when I was in England. Some were in the Championship, some in the Premier League, but there is no fear.

“Like all the teams, they have weak points that we will try to exploit. We will try to prepare for the game like that.

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“They have individuals but the collective is the most important. We want our collective to beat the collective of Rangers.”

Ibrox boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his stars are desperately battling to save their season.

The Premiership champs are now six points behind Celtic in the title race following Sunday’s costly Ibrox loss.

Gers face Braga twice before the small matter of a Scottish Cup semi-final against Treble-chasing Celts a week on Sunday.

Asked about their derby agony, Carvalhal added: “We will try to take advantage of that. We are a balanced team and we know what we must do.

“We have something new we put on the pitch. The players understand what we want.

“If we play Benfica, if we play Rangers, if we play a team from the Second Division, we want to win and play the same way.”

Despite Gers’ domestic woes, Carvalhal reckons this quarter-final tie is too close to call.

He added: “We think it will be a very tough game. It’s 50-50 because at this stage of the competition all of the teams have certain conditions to us.

“I was at the Old Firm. It was a fantastic game.  Rangers looked after me and my assistant very well and we enjoyed it a lot.

“Rangers are a good team. They are powerful and play a physical game.

“When they press they are effective, and we saw in the first ten or 15 minutes after Celtic started to have more of the ball, Rangers felt some problems.”

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Carvalhal guided Braga to an impressive win over Benfica before his whistle-stop visit to Ibrox.

Despite losing four key players in the summer, he has built an impressive young side capable of killing Gers’ Euro dream.

Carvalhal said: “We’ve achieved this position with the youngest team in the competition.

“In my two years since going to Braga, we have 14 players from the academy. One at 15, some 17, 18. We’re playing very well and getting better and better.

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“We beat Monaco, who after PSG are the best team in France. We beat Benfica last week. So let’s see now what we will do against Rangers.”


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