Rangers boss Steven Gerrard backs Flo Kamberi to replace Alfredo Morelos

Rangers striker Florian Kamberi celebrates his goal at St Johnstone. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

The Ibrox manager confirmed Kamberi has played his way into the team as the visitors seek to defend a 3-2 first leg lead at the Braga Municipal Stadium.

Gerrard stressed he “could not ignore” the player’s performance after he came off the bench to score a goal and make another for Joe Aribo in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with St Johnstone.

Kamberi underlined his credentials to replace Morelos and gave Gerrard a very straightforward decision. It’s in other areas such as central defence where the manager has trickier dilemmas. Nikola Katic, for example, endured a very uncomfortable afternoon against St Johnstone and could pay with his place tomorrow evening in Portugal.

Kamberi has few such worries as he relishes the prospect of a first start since signing from Hibs on loan in a swap deal with Greg Docherty. Gerrard lamented Kamberi not being the story on Sunday after his second-half contribution. Instead, Rangers’ defensive woes were the main talking point as the Ibrox side fell 12 points behind Celtic in the title race.

“I wanted to start him [Kamberi] on Sunday but obviously the risk of him playing a full game and not being fresh on Wednesday was one that I was juggling about with,” said  Gerrard.

“When we went 1-0 down I needed to twist and I did that. I thought he was absolutely outstanding. On that performance he plays [v Braga], for sure.

“You can’t ignore that, that was some impact. He got Man of the Match and everyone should have been talking about Flo Kamberi.”

Gerrard acknowledged the striker’s role will be different in challenging circumstances tomorrow. Kamberi will have to make off-the-ball runs and chase down defenders on a night when Rangers can expect to be on the back foot.

Braga need to score at least once but will also be conscious that the visitors could make things very difficult for them with an away goal.

Kamberi impressed when he came on as a half time  substitute against St Johnstone. He scored his first goal for the club and set up another one for Aribo following a clever dummy. There will be less scope for trickery against a Braga team still smarting after losing a 2-0 lead at Ibrox.

“It will be a different type of game, he is going to have to be selfless and do some real, dirty, strong running and sacrifice himself for the team at times, of course he will,” said Gerrard. “But you can see that if he gets an opportunity then he knows where the back of the net is, which, for us, is a real big positive.”

Gerrard decided against handing Kamberi his first start in Perth because he did not want to risk him ahead of the Europa League assignment. The player was always likely to feature at some point in Braga due to Morelos’ absence.

Rangers are particularly light in attack with Jermain Defoe still making his way back from a calf injury sustained in the victory over Ross County last month.

Meanwhile, Borna Barisic is facing a race against time to be fit for the clash. The left back only returned to the side after injury for the first leg but took a blow to his kidney during the game. He missed Sunday’s draw in Perth with Gerrard revealing the player had been passing blood.

“We are hoping that he will have an outside chance for Wednesday,” he said. “I have got some thinking to do and I have got to get the decision right because the team have given me something to think about now.”