Sporting Lisbon coach Paulo Bento has hit out at Rangers for being too aggressive in last week's UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg at Ibrox.

And he is seeking a strong performance from the referee in Thursday night's return leg at the Jose Alvalade Stadium with the game nicely poised following a goalless first match.

Liedson and skipper Joao Moutinho both left the field on a stretcher but returned to the action within minutes.

Bento insists there was no simulation on the part of his players and is hoping for a less aggressive approach from their visitors when they battle for the right to face Fiorentina or PSV Eindhoven in the last four.

He said: "Rangers are an aggressive team. We felt it in the first minutes at Glasgow. Two important players suffered heavy tackles.

"It's up the referee to do his job tomorrow night - we just hope we can keep our own control."

Liedson and Moutinho were both jeered by Ibrox fans, who felt both players had indulged in simulation.

But Bento insisted: "You just have to look at the pictures.

"Those two tackles were not over-reaction from our players - if anything, it was over-tackling on the behalf of the Rangers players."

His views were backed up by defender Leandro Grimi, who said: "Rangers are a tough, rough team but I hope the play fair and there will be no problems.

"But we just have to concentrate on how Sporting will play and not worry about the others.

"If you were to look at our legs after the match you would notice that we were not over-reacting or diving.

"Let's hope things go better tomorrow night."

Sporting will be without Anderson Polga after the Brazilian centre-half took a knock in the 2-0 win over Braga.

"Polga is not the only injury," said Bento. "You will just have to wait and see who Polga's replacement is."

Left-back Grimi added: "He is an important player for us but whoever plays instead will have the support of the rest of the team. We will make up for the absence of Polga."

As for the threat Rangers pose, Grimi said: "We know they are a tough, difficult team.

"Rangers play very well at home. We got an important result but nothing is decided. We need to work hard to get through to the next stage.

"We have to do everything we have been doing - stay calm and not get stressed. It would be nice to score early but it's not important.

"The important thing is that we score no matter what minute and win the match. Both teams will have to try to score.

"At the moment we can't tell if it's going to be a more open or close game than the one at Ibrox. Sporting will try to score, of course."

Following the goalless draw at Ibrox, he added: "You can always do better and I hope tomorrow will be our best match of the season."

You can follow the action from Sporting v Rangers with LIVE comments and scoring on eurosport.yahoo.com from 19:45 GMT on Thursday!

Team Talk / Eurosport