Cyriel Dessers Hoping To Build On Olympiacos Performance

Cyriel Dessers believes Rangers’ 1-1 Europa League draw against Olympiacos on Thursday should give them strength for Sunday’s visit of Hearts.

The Nigeria striker passed up a couple of chances to take the lead before the interval in the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium before the Greek side, current Conference League champions, opened the scoring in the 56th minute through Moroccan forward Ayoub El Kaabi.

However, Dessers levelled eight minutes later with a composed finish to move Philippe Clement’s side on to seven points, with the chance to qualify for the knockout stages still alive as they turn their attention to the William Hill Premiership game against the Jambos at Ibrox.

Dessers said: “It is a really good feeling and that should give us strength as well for the game on Sunday first and foremost, but also for the next games in the Europa League and in the league.

“We have got some big months coming up and we are all excited, we cannot wait for these games.

“I think it was a decent result. If you look at our performance as a team, I think we can be happy about that.

“Olympiacos is a very good team, a lot of quality. It was a special atmosphere, so not easy to go there and take a point so I think we can be happy with that.”

Dessers revealed his positive mentality when assessing the chances he missed before he got the crucial leveller, taking a Vaclav Cerny pass and finishing with confidence.

He said: “This is life as a striker. I was watching the Champions League this week, and I see unbelievable strikers miss chances.

“So who am I, as Cyriel Dessers, not to miss chances? Obviously, you’re always going to miss more than you score.

“That’s the life of a striker. You know that there will always be a perception about that, but that’s life.

“If I would score three chances every game then I will probably not be at Rangers either.

“You just have to keep going, never give up as a team, as an individual, and you just need to be ready for the next one. And then that’s what I did on Thursday and that’s what we did as a team as well.

“Even after the setback, we came back, and we can be very proud with our performance here

“I’m very happy with my performance. I think I played a good game. I gave the two centre-backs a lot of difficulties.

“Obviously, you want to score one of the first two chances. On the first one, the finish could have been better. The second one, I think I do well. I think the goalkeeper makes a good save.

“You need to stay in the game. Need to stay focused and hopefully make the next one and that’s what I did. So I’m happy with that.”