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Thomson Remains Upbeat

Thu 31 Jul, 08:09 AM


Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson is confident of progress in their Champions League qualifier against FBK Kaunas despite the goalless draw in the first leg at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

The Light Blues missed several chances during an anxious and unconvincing 90 minutes with strikers Kenny Miller and Jean-Claude Darcheville the biggest culprits, both missing first-half sitters.

Last season's UEFA Cup finalists need to score in Kaunas next Tuesday - unless they fancy their chances in a penalty shoot-out - but Thomson, who passed a late fitness test on a knee injury to play, is not ready to press the panic button.

"From what we saw in this game, I am sure we can improve and go to Lithuania and score an away goal," he said.

"I suppose they played the way we did last year. They sat in and made it difficult and we didn't have that bit of flair and cutting edge in front of goal, which was a wee bit disappointing.

"The onus is going to be on them. It's always difficult being the team playing at home, when you have to dictate and try to score.

"Over there, we can try to employ the same tactics as last year, sit a wee bit tighter and try to use our pace up front to score on the counter-attack.

"We had a lot of possession in the second half, but we just lacked that little bit of inspiration and magic to get a goal.

"I'm sure that will come, though, because this is just our first competitive game and we are not writing ourselves off.

"We will go there with confidence and we're confident we can score.

"They are well into their season, we've now seen them and feel as though they won't have much more to come.

"It's our first game and I'm sure we are going to get better. If we score a goal over there, I am sure we will get through."

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