Smith - We respect Unirea

Gers boss denies underestimating Romanians

By James Riach   Last updated: 3rd November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Smith - We respect Unirea

Smith: Denies underestimating Unirea

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Rangers manager Walter Smith has denied that his team underestimated Unirea Urziceni before their last game.

The Gers were humbled 4-1 by the Romanians at Ibrox a fortnight ago, but they have a chance to atone for their poor performance when they travel to Bucharest for a crunch UEFA Champions League clash on Wednesday.

Unirea boss Dan Petrescu thinks the Scottish champions underestimated his side before the game, but Smith says his players were just not good enough on the night.

He said: "I don't think that's right at all (when informed of Petrescu's comments).

"I don't think we are in a position to disregard anybody and we certainly didn't think that before the game.

"We didn't play well on the evening, which is the main aspect. We didn't play the way we have done in other European games but it was not because of any disrespect for the opposition.

"We will have to do far better this time than we did in the last match we played. We didn't acquit ourselves well and it was probably our poorest European performance for a while.

"We have to make sure that we try to turn that around and play in the manner we know we can. If we can do that, we have a chance."

Gamble

Petrescu also revealed he made a bet with his players that they would not pick up another point in the Champions League after their victory in Glasgow, but Smith refused to be drawn into any mind games.

"I hope that's the case," he added.

"We want to try and win the game tomorrow night and that's all that matters to us.

"We have to show the way we played in the last game wasn't typical of our performances. Certainly, we played better in the other two games than we did in that game at Ibrox.

"To take something from this game will be vitally important for us and we will attempt to do that. It will have to be a far better performance than in the previous match."

If Rangers lose in Bucharest it will end their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition, as they currently lie bottom of Group G with just one point from three games.