Rangers v Slavia Prague: What Czech coach Jindrich Trpisovsky said after drawing Steven Gerrard's side in Europa League last 16
The coach had been eyeing a trip to Ibrox in the last round before being paired with Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City – and victory over the Foxes gave the Prague manager his wish at the second time of asking.
Slavia will host Rangers on March 11 and then head to Ibrox a week later with a place in the quarter finals up for grabs. Both sides dodged some of the bigger, more glamorous names in the mix, but both sides are on top form domestically, undefeated in each league competition.
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Hide AdTrpisovsky said he’s looking forward to meeting Steven Gerrard and facing the strongest team in Scotland. He said: "I’ve wanted them for a long time because we haven’t played in Scotland yet. It's an interesting match. Given what teams were there, we have to be very satisfied with the lot.
“I'm excited - it's a Scottish club, Rangers, Steven Gerrard the coach, Ibrox Stadium, huge history.
“About three weeks ago, I saw one of their matches. Not only their position in the Scottish League, but also their performance in Europe, including the matches with Antwerp where they scored nine goals, show that it is currently the strongest Scottish team.”
Slavia provided one of the upsets of the previous round by defeating Brendan Rodgers’ side 2-0 at the King Power Stadium with second half goals from Lukas Provod and Abdallah Sima and Trpisovsky admitted: “I think it will be similar to Leicester with the first match at home which is good for us.
“I saw Rangers recently and they have a slightly different style than Leicester. But when the team gets this far, it's there because it has quality, so it blurs a lot.
"We are very lucky for it this year. First Patrick Vieira, Peter Bosz are all great coaches and now Steve Gerrard, captain and legend of Liverpool. I have heard a lot of positive stories about him from Milan Baroš. It's a big bonus and added value. "