Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has no doubts that Florian Kamberi can step up to the plate in Portugal following his inspirational display in Perth.
The on-loan Hibernian forward grabbed his first Rangers goal in style, volleying home from 18 yards less than five minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute against St Johnstone.
The Swiss-born Albania international then set up Joe Aribo to score after turning Jason Kerr with a brilliant dummy.
Kamberi’s heroics could not get Rangers the win they needed to avoid losing further ground in the Ladbrokes Premiership title race as Saints hit back for a 2-2 draw.
But they have given Gerrard some comfort as he heads into Wednesday’s Europa League second leg against Braga without the suspended Alfredo Morelos and injured Jermain Defoe.
Rangers hold a 3-2 lead and Kamberi will have his work cut out against the classy Portuguese side.
But Gerrard believes he can make his mark following his Perth display on Sunday.
“On the evidence of that, yeah, for sure,” Gerrard said. “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.
“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.
“I wanted to start him 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.
“But 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, 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.
“They will talk about Rangers as a defensive unit and that is my responsibility that I need to solve.”
