Motherwell striker Kevin van Veen feels playing in front of 50,000 at Ibrox can bring the best out of him as he recalled giving Chelsea a fright at Stamford Bridge.
Van Veen was part of a Scunthorpe side that lost 2-0 against a side featuring the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Pedro and Diego Costa six seasons ago. But he should have had a penalty when Ramires tripped him, and he almost caught out Asmir Begovic with an ambitious free-kick.
Motherwell take on Rangers on Sunday after the home side hoist the league title flag in a ceremony delayed from the opening day, and Covid restrictions mean there will be no visiting fans inside Ibrox.
But van Veen believes he can thrive in the hostile atmosphere.
The Dutchman said: “The last big one was the FA Cup with Scunthorpe against Chelsea away so that was quite a big game too. This is going to be something similar or even bigger.
“Chelsea put their strongest team out. I played left wing and I actually had one of the best games in my career on the left wing, against (Branislav) Ivanovic. I should have had a penalty and I hit the post.
“I do feel I am really looking forward to these type of games. I feel it brings the best out in me and hopefully I can show on Sunday that I can be on the level to threaten and be dangerous and creative even against Rangers, just play my own game, work hard for my team-mates and hopefully get a good result.”
Van Veen, who netted his second goal in three league starts against Aberdeen last weekend, added: “It’s a big test, everyone knows how good they are. We are in good form, we played quite well on Saturday and didn’t give much away. Hopefully we can defend well as a team and going forward we can be an attacking threat.”
The talented former Northampton player has spoken of how he is motivated to get fans off their seats, but he will be looking to silence the crowd on Sunday.
“Personally, I love to ruin a title party,” he said. “That would be good but it’s going to be really tough. We really need to be on top of our game, every single one of us, we need to be at the top of our game and even a little bit more, to get a good result there.”
