Ernesto Valverde not reading into Rangers’ Ibrox problems ahead of European tie

Athletic Bilbao boss Ernesto Valverde will not be fooled by Rangers’ recent home horrors ahead of their Europa League clash at Ibrox on Thursday night.

The Light Blues have turned in most of their best performances in Europe this season but Barry Ferguson’s side suffered a 2-0 home loss by Hibernian in the William Hill Premiership on Saturday which extended an unwanted club record of five straight home defeats.

Bilbao, who sit fourth in LaLiga, are one of the favourites in the Europa League where the final will be played at their home ground, Estadio San Mames.

Speaking through an interpreter at Ibrox ahead of the first leg of their quarter-final, Valverde said: “Regarding Rangers, I view that as something extraordinary, the run of losses they’ve had at home.

“Five in the last five has never happened, especially the last game we saw, it seemed like an exceptional game.

“Rangers had more chances. They didn’t make the most of them, so Rangers are very strong at home.

“They always have been like that, and they’ve been like that this season as well, apart from this short moment in the season, the last few games. Let’s see what Rangers team show up tomorrow.

“They’ve got a good team. They move well across the pitch, and they’re very fast. They can play balls in behind us into the spaces and they have shown that in the Europa League.

“They’ve got players like Cyriel Dessers and Vaclav Cerny who can play well. They can compete with any team and it is only three years since they reached the final. It is a big challenge playing in a stadium like this in the quarter-final.

“Rangers are one of the toughest teams in the competition for me. There could be arguments that they could be favourites. It’s a knockout competition.

“Any team in the quarter-finals is here because they can achieve big things.

“They’ve got various ways of playing like I said. They’ll look to dominate the game. We’ll see how they try and do that, they might play a possession game, they might try and counter-attack.

“They have a lot of aggression and recently in the game against Celtic, they showed that they can press high, really aggressively and that got them a good result.

“So they’ve shown that they can play various ways across the season. I’m expecting the best version of Rangers tomorrow.”