Gio van Bronckhorst in sobering Rangers Champions League verdict as he maps out 'much easier' pot four alternative

The Champions League. Can’t live with it …. pass the beer nuts.

Yes, Giovanni van Bronchorst stopped just short of saying all he wants is a bag of cans and the Europa League back. But the strain which comes with being ritually outclassed and heavily outgunned on the biggest stage in club football, continues to weigh down as a burden on the shoulders of the Rangers manager.

Sunday’s 2-1 top-flight win at Motherwell may have lightened the load a little but van Bronckhorst is currently battling through the most dangerous period of his time in charge of the Ibrox club. The wounds inflicted by that 7-1 evisceration from Liverpool are evidently going to take some time to heal. And yet, it’s against this backdrop of European carnage, that he must attempt to keep his side functioning in domestic competition. Fir Park was a start. Tonight against Dundee, the Dutchman hopes to continue the recovery by booking up a place in the semi-finals of the League Cup.

And yet, all the while, he knows the brutality being done to his team on its travels across the continent is also damaging his own credentials in the unforgiving eyes of a fan base which is running low on tolerance. Which is why yesterday he came very close to pleading for some understanding.

Van Bronckhorst said: “For us it’s much easier to be in the Europa League or in the Conference League. You can see the difference in level and we wouldn’t be having the result we are having now.

“But that’s what happens when you go into the Champions League in pot four. You’re going to play against really tough opposition. But we have the strongest opponents from each pot in Liverpool and Napoli from pot three.

“Look at all the big teams. They are still struggling to qualify for the