IAN Durrant has told Rangers’ senior players they’ll need to step up and lead by example against Panathinaikos in Athens on Wednesday night if they want to avoid exiting the Champions League early just like the Ibrox side he was a key member of.
Durrant was impressed at how Russell Martin’s men acquitted themselves in the first leg of the second qualifying round double header in Govan on Tuesday evening – they overcame a shaky start and ran out 2-0 winners over Rui Vitoria’s charges.
But the Hall of Fame member can still recall how AEK Athens eased to a comfortable 2-0 victory against Walter Smith’s team in a qualifying match in the Nikos Goumas Stadium back in 1994 and then edged to a 1-0 triumph away a fortnight later.
That devastating and financially costly 3-0 aggregate reverse was suffered just months after Rangers had come within a whisker of reaching the final of Europe’s elite club competition after going undefeated in all 10 of their matches.
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Durrant is confident that James Tavernier and his team mates will be able to handle the stifling heat in Greece next week – but feels the captain and other experienced members of the team will need to show they are unfazed by the hostile atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium.
“The manager will find out a lot about his players, about how they can handle that environment, that arena,” he said. “Not just the heat, but the massive crowd. It'll be volatile.
“How will they handle it? He'll find a lot about these players, especially if he goes with the young ones again and plays them. We'll be finding out things in every game. But in that sort of environment, I think you'll find out a lot more.
“I think when you go through that team, the experience we had against some really good sides, but in terms of the Marseille team, they were a phenomenal team. But you go toe to toe with them, it just shows you.
“But your Butlands, Taverniers, even your Rothwells, who's played at a great level, Raskins, and whoever plays up front, the spine of your team, they'll be called upon. They'll need to get regrouping, make sure everybody can handle it.
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“Panathinaikos will be at Rangers from the first minute because they’ll want to make it a game where they feel uncomfortable. It's how you handle it and how you react to things like that.”
Looking back on his outing to Athens back in 1994, Durrant added, “We shot ourselves in the foot with the goal we gave away. The gaffer was trying to get new players in at that time and it never clicked so early. Athens were better than us, simple as. Over the two legs, they were far better than us.
“It was very warm, but we'd done a pre-season. We used to do a pre-season in Italy. We sort of acclimatised to it. On the night, it doesn't really matter about the heat because you can get as much water in as you can. You've just got to make sure you perform over two legs. Against AEK we were nowhere near it.”
Light Blues legend Ian Durrant was speaking as he promoted RYDC’s Big Blue Jackpot, a new Rangers Lotto prize for supporters who can win guaranteed end-of-month jackpots of at least £12,000 and £15,000 from August. Full details at www.rydc.co.uk
