McCulloch eyes final four

Midfielder confident of place in Uefa Cup semi-finals

Last updated: 4th April 2008

Lee McCulloch

McCulloch: Confident

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Lee McCulloch insists Rangers remain confident of reaching the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup, despite their 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon at Ibrox.

Rangers face a tough task to progress to the final four in Europe after being held to a home stalemate in the first-leg of their quarter-final against Sporting on Thursday.

However, McCulloch is adamant Rangers are more than capable of upsetting Sporting - who eliminated Bolton in the last 16 - in Portugal next week.

"The ball is still in our court," said midfielder McCulloch. "We would liked to have scored. But it's not the end of the world, and we won't let our heads go down.

Route-one

"We didn't play well, and there was a lot of route-one football. But we didn't concede - and that is the positive thing.

"We have been hard to play against and hard to score against this season, so I think that if we can nick a goal then we have every chance.

"We are more than capable of going there and scoring, so that's why we will be confident.

"They will be a good team at home; they made it difficult against us, especially in the second half.

Confident

"It wasn't our best night as a team. But they didn't blow us away, and we will be confident going over there."

Rangers will have to travel to Lisbon without David Weir, who will be suspended for the second leg after picking up a booking after the interval in Glasgow.

And McCulloch admits Weir's absence will come as a blow but is confident Walter Smith's squad can cope without the veteran defender.

"We are going to lose players through injury and suspension this season, but there's a couple of people who can come in," added McCulloch.

"His experience will be a big loss, but we will just have to get on with it."