STEVEN GERRARD is confident Rangers can handle the Hampden pressure and rise to the occasion against Aberdeen to move within 90 minutes of League Cup glory.
The Gers will face Derek McInnes’ side tomorrow aiming to set up a meeting with Celtic or Hearts as they bid to secure their first silverware in seven seasons.
Gerrard has transformed Rangers’ fortunes this term after overhauling the squad that he inherited at Ibrox in the summer and his side set a new club record of eleven European games unbeaten with their Group G draw against Spartak Moscow on Thursday.
Now the Light Blues boss – who will be without Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty at the National Stadium - has Aberdeen in his sights as Rangers prepare for arguably their biggest match of the campaign to date.
Gerrard said: “We have done so far. Everything that has been thrown at us.
“The first half at Celtic and Livingston apart, more often than not we have faced the challenge and given it a real good go.
“But even though we have two good players missing it’s still eleven versus eleven.
“We’ve still got good players and threats in all areas of the pitch.
“Aberdeen don’t know what we are going to do and even we don’t know that yet.
“I will pick a team and we will have a plan. We have already spoken to the players - that ball started rolling last night.
“We can’t wait, we are really looking forward to it. We are not feeling sorry for ourselves because we haven’t got our two strikers. We are really excited and looking forward to it.
“They’ve been brilliant, yes. Even the reaction at half-time against Celtic we showed we are capable of being better than we showed in the first 45.
“We have gone away to big teams. Maribor, Villareal - Champions League opposition. We have held our own and done really well.
“Hearts were on a high coming to Ibrox and we proved ourselves, we did it.
“That’s what gives me confidence for the weekend and why I have belief we can get the job done.”
Rangers progressed to the last four of the Betfred Cup 12 months ago only to see their silverware ambitions ended by Motherwell at Hampden.
The Steelmen outmuscled and outfought Pedro Caixinha’s side but Gerrard is confident there will be no repeat of that embarrassment this time around.
He said: “I wouldn’t like to think anyone will bully us. I think we have the right profile about the team, the right characters in the dressing room now.
“We have players who want to fight and dig deep. I think we have winners in the dressing room, good team spirit.
“What they have shown up to this point is that they are not prepared to be bullied - if people want to mix it we’ll mix it. Hopefully then our quality will shine through.”
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