Rangers may have one foot in the Europa League play-offs but Steven Gerrard has warned his players they only have to look at Celtic to realise the pitfalls that lie in wait if they take their eye off the ball.
The Ibrox side go into the second leg of their third round qualifier against Midtjylland with a 4-2 advantage thanks to last week's impressive win in Denmark.
Anything other than a spectacular collapse on home soil on Thursday evening will see them move to within one round of the group stage.
But Gerrard is taking nothing for granted.
Celtic saw their Champions League group stage hopes crumble after suffering a shock 4-3 defeat to Romanian champions Cluj at Parkhead and they will now join the Rangers in the Europa League.
And Gerrard wants his men to take note of Celtic's fate and take appropriate action. He said: "What last night shows is that European ties are never over, even when you get a positive result in the first leg.
"Some of these teams that people don't know much about - Cluj from Romania, for example, or Midtjylland from Denmark - they carry a huge threat.
"They're so desperate for financial reasons to progress, like most of us, so my players need to take note of last night and make sure we deal with our second leg much better."
There was certainly no joy to be taken from Celtic's flop for Gerrard who acknowledged the damaging effect failure in Europe can have on the country's coefficient.
With Scotland ranked 20th in Uefa's ranking system, Gers and fellow Europa League competitors Aberdeen and Kilmarnock were all forced to kick off at the first qualifying round this season, as were Celtic in the continent's premier competition.
A rise to 17th could yet see the top two in this year's Premiership start at the second qualifying round next term and Gerrard admits it is crucial the country's top sides do their bit in Europe.
He said: "It's certainly going to be detrimental because all the Scottish teams need to do as well as we can to improve the coefficient and give ourselves an advantage in these European competitions.
"From that aspect (Celtic's defeat) is very disappointing.
"But for me, I'm the manager of Glasgow Rangers and my focus is on and the challenges that face us."
