Rangers explain Aaron Ramsey's omission in Portugal as Giovanni van Bronckhorst reveals Braga weakness he wants to exploit at Ibrox

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst is hopeful Braga’s relatively inexperienced team might wilt in the heat of the Ibrox cauldron next week as the Scottish champions try to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the Europa League quarter-finals.

Abel Ruiz scored the only goal of the first leg in Portugal on Thursday night, leaving the tie firmly in the balance.

As Rangers look to book a semi-final clash with either RB Leipzig or Atalanta, who drew 1-1 in Germany in the first leg of their last eight tie, van Bronckhorst is banking on the impact of a fired-up capacity crowd in Govan.

“In the end, it’s a one-goal difference,” he said. “Next week we play at home with the crowd behind us.

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst issues instructions to his players during the Europa League quarter-final, first leg match against Braga in Portugal. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

“The atmosphere is very hostile (at Ibrox), it’s very overwhelming at times. You saw tonight that after 70 minutes, Braga dropped their energy levels a little bit.

“So we have to give all the energy next week. We have to win by a margin of two and then you go to the semis. So we know what the task is ahead of us.

“We wanted a good result to take with us (back to Glasgow). It was a hard game, we conceded one goal and tried to push for the 1-1 in the second half.

“In the last 20 minutes, we had more control. Braga is a side who goes in transitions really quick, so we had to be really careful in those moments.

“On the ball, especially in the first half, we should have tried more to break the lines instead of giving a long ball quickly. Sometimes it is just keep the patience, keep the ball - we did that much better in the second half.

“When we build up, we try to make the pitch really big. But you also know when you have transition moments, they have players who can punish you a lot. So that’s why we built up a little bit differently.”

Van Bronckhorst’s decision not to include Aaron Ramsey in his starting line-up raised eyebrows and the on-loan Juventus midfielder remained on the bench all night.

“He was fit but we have a big squad,” said van Bronckhorst. “I think the midfielders who played today did well.

“With the substitutions (we made) with Joe (Aribo) coming on and Ryan (Jack) on a yellow, it went really good. There are more games to play so we will use all the players we have.”

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