Rangers ‘can learn’ from ‘disappointing’ Champions League campaign

James Sands says the Rangers squad can learn from another “disappointing” Champions League defeat and build on the positives to set up the rest of their season.

The USA international played the full 90 minutes as Napoli won 3-0 at the Diego Maradona stadium on Wednesday night and he insists that he has “enjoyed” testing himself at the top level despite a string of heavy defeats.

It was the fifth Champions League loss in a row this season for Rangers who now only have one game left to avoid the unwanted tag of the tournament’s “worst ever” side.

A one goal defeat at Ibrox would see Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men equal the record of worst group stage performance currently held by Dinamo Zagreb who finished on 0 point and a goal difference of -19.

But Sands says they have to dust themselves down and use the experience to get their season back on track with three league points against Aberdeen on Saturday.

Speaking to Rangers TV following the defeat in Italy, he said: “It was obviously a disappointing night for us, anytime you lose 3-0 it’s tough to take, but I think there are some positives we can take away from it.

“It’s an experience all of us can learn from and I think we all enjoyed testing ourselves against the best players in the world.

“We dug ourselves a bit of a hole early on, you cannot concede two goals to a team like that, that early but we did create some chances in the second half, and we will be looking to build on that.

“It will be important to build on the positives (for the Ajax game) but first we have Aberdeen at the weekend and that’s a massive game for us in the league and we will be focusing on that before Ajax.

“The games are happening every couple of days, so everybody has to be ready to step up because we need three points at the weekend.”