Dundee United boss Tam Courts described Rangers’ stunning win over Borussia Dortmund as “great for Scottish football” but insists it makes no difference to his preparations for Sunday’s clash at Tannadice.
The Scottish champions made Europe sit up and take notice on Thursday night with a sensational 4-2 victory away to the German giants in the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off encounter.
Courts’ side are on a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions with a 1-0 cinch Premiership win over Rangers at the start of the season to offer encouragement and he will not be knocked off his stride after watching the Light Blues put themselves into the box seat ahead of the second leg.
He said: “It was obviously a very strong performance, it was great for them, it was great for Scottish football.
“I’ve always tried to be a supporter of Scottish teams in Europe because I think everybody has to talk our game up.
“It is a very unique league that we play in, sometimes externally it probably doesn’t get the credit it deserves so the way Rangers performed obviously for themselves and for a wider Scottish football is a real positive for our game.
“Sometimes when you come up against Celtic or Rangers there might be a tendency to think about their previous performance and result or their European run but these clubs have been doing this for such a long time now.
“Their squads are designed and equipped to play 50/60 games a season so if we had played them just after the Celtic performance and result (3-0 defeat) I don’t think it would have changed our preparation.
“Equally, I don’t think it changes our preparation after a really strong performance against one of the European giants.
“It is going to be a really tough game for us but also by the same token I think at this stage of the season everyone is fighting for their own objectives and aspirations, that’s certainly what we are doing and we want to target points from the game.
“When you look at our form against different teams in the league this season, if you take Celtic and Rangers, we have actually fared quite favourably against them.
“We beat Rangers at the start of the season, we drew with Celtic, we had a couple of other really credible performances which in some respects maybe carries a little bit of favour, in other respects counts for absolutely nothing.
“It is a very good team in ourselves coming up against a top team in Rangers.
“We have home advantage, we are on a good run of form just now and like any opponent we have total respect for them but equally we have to be targeting something from every game we play in.”
