PEDRO CAIXINHA, the Rangers manager, admitted he wasn’t a miracle worker after his newly assembled side narrowly defeated Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg 1-0 in the club’s first European match in six years.
The Portuguese has had less than a month to work with both old players and new signings, some of which only arrived over the last week, and that was an obvious factor in the uneven performance.
Kenny Miller scored the game’s only goal on a night when his side played well enough in stages but never really looked as if they could finish the tie in Glasgow, which means the return next week is going to be a test for this new-look Rangers.
Caixinha was happy enough with some aspects of his team’s display but it was a frustrating start to the season in many ways.
He said: “It’s not a question of fitness, it’s a question of time to get the fitness. I’m not a guy that can make miracles in three weeks and just like this the team is ready to get the rhythm of playing, you only get it by playing and by time.
“Only between five and six weeks in pre-season one team is ready to play and we’ve had just three, so we know the reality we are facing. The majority of the players had a good performance, a good rhythm. It’s not a question of fitness but it’s more a question of better decisions and more aggression
“I am not patient. But we need to understand where we are. This is the first challenge. We were all expecting to maybe win some more. But we have to give value to the team we were facing. They played with their weapons, defending and looking for a mistake from us.
“I think they did a great job defending. We could have done a better job of exploring the space, definitely, and getting more presence in the box. If we were not having the quality and the ideas since we have been working on day one, I would maybe a bit more worried.
“But I know that it is a question of time. And I know for sure that next Tuesday the team will be much better."
Caixinha gave five players their debuts and felt the team as a whole couldn’t quite follow his instructions.
He said: “I don’t analyse it in terms of individually, when I do it I do it on a one-on-one basis. I analyse overall, they are just arriving, just adapting. I need to have one v one specific about situations that they need to understand, one or two not all of them
“I really liked the first half as we dominated the game. We created some good opportunities but I didn’t like our finishing. We need to work on that. In the second half things didn’t go in the direction we wanted. They were winning a lot of second balls and we struggled to retain the ball.”
Rangers will be favourites to go through but this tie is far from decided as Progres at least hinted they will be more of a goal threat in the return.
Caixinha said: “It is half time and we are winning. We also know the away goal is important. I don’t want the team to think that we are winning going there and to just think about a draw or a 2-1 or whatever.
“I’m not thinking like that. I just think about winning. This is the mentality of our club and the standards demanded. This is the way we need to think.
“We are going there to play it like a final. And when the game starts we have to have to think the game is a draw and that a win will take us to the next stage.
Paolo Amodio, the Niederkorn manager, certainly believed his team could shock Rangers in four days’ time.
He said: “We will do our best. We will start with 0-0 next week and anything is possible in football. I think all the pressure is on Rangers to make sure they go through.
“They probably expected to win tonight by five or six goals and it’s not the case so anything could happen next week.”
When asked about a reported bid from English Championship side Norwich City for defender Jamie Barjonas, Caixinha refused to comment.
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