Cyriel Dessers promises Rangers he'll 'die on the pitch' if that's what it takes to beat Celtic

Fired-up frontman Cyriel Dessers says he’s ready to die in Sunday’s Old Firm clash if it helps Rangers recover from their Champions League savaging.

The Ibrox outfit were shown little mercy by PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday as the Dutch side laid waste to Gers’ group-stage ambitions with a brutal 5-1 mauling. But Michael Beale’s team don’t have time to lick their wounds, with Celtic on their way to Govan this weekend for the opening derby duel of the season.

And now Dessers has vowed he will sacrifice everything for three points. The Nigeria striker said: “These are the games as a sportsman that you want to play in and you want to be a part of. It is an honour that I can play at Rangers and that I can play in this game. I am ready to die on the pitch. We need to do everything to win this game.

“We will have to lift ourselves. Of course we are sportsmen so this is a really tough loss because you work towards a goal and one of our goals was reaching the Champions League. Especially after last week when we showed that we have the level and we can do it. So this is tough.

“But we are professionals and we know what’s at stake on Sunday. I am sure we will be ready. We will take the positives from Thursday’s game. Maybe that won’t be easy but we will take the positives and try to improve the negative bits and we will be ready on Sunday I am 100 percent sure.”

Boss Beale took his side to Holland hoping to build on last week’s encouraging first leg draw and the comfortable 2-0 win away at Ross County. But he’ll worry now that confidence levels have been crushed again just four weeks on from seeing his side lose their Premiership opener to Kilmarnock.

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