Walter Smith has called on his Rangers side to show that their freak 4-1 drubbing at home to Unirea Urziceni two weeks ago was a one-off result.
The Ibrox club are in Romania for Wednesday’s return fixture against the Romanians and are a defeat away from failure to qualify for the second round of the Champions League.
The Gers have one point from their first three matches, picked up on the road to Stuttgart on matchday one. Since then, they have suffered two 4-1 home defeats, first at home to Spanish cracks Sevilla and then Unirea.
Smith though believes that his side’s abysmal showing in the Unirea defeat wasn’t the true mark of his team and says that the performances against Sevilla and Stuttgart were better indicators of their promise.
“We have to show that the way we played the other night wasn’t typical of our performances,” said Smith. “We played better in our two other games then we did do in the game at Ibrox.”
Lee McCulloch has recovered from injury to take up a place in central defence, but Algerian stopper Madjid Bougherra won’t be fit despite returning to training this week, instead targeting Saturday’s clash with St Mirren.
Pedro Mendes, Maurice Edu and Kirk Broadfoot are also absent for Wednesday’s match, but Smith is buoyed by the return of McCulloch after fielding a patched-up defence in recent weeks.
“We’ll need all our players available to us,” said Smith. “We’ve been hit by injuries to defensive positions especially recently so it’s nice to have him [McCulloch] back.”
Dan Petrescu’s Unirea could be without key midfielder Bruno Fernandez, who has a thigh strain. The game is being held in Bucharest’s Steaua stadium, because the Romanian’s ground is not up to UEFA standards.
Last updated: 03 November 2009, 20:27
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