John Lundstram targeting Champions League redemption with Rangers

John Lundstram is looking for some Champions League redemption this year as he prepares for Rangers’ qualifier against Servette on Wednesday night.

Under Giovanni van Bronckhorst last season the Light Blues reached the group stages of the competition for the first time in 12 years.

However, after reaching the Europa League final in Seville only to lose to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties the previous season, the step up in class proved to be traumatic for the Glasgow side.

The Govan side finished bottom of the section with no points after home and away defeats by Liverpool, Ajax and Napoli and amid some heavy losses was a record 7-1 home defeat by the Merseyside club at Ibrox.

Ahead of the first leg of the third qualifier against the Swiss side – the winners play PSV Eindhoven or Sturm Graz in the play-off – midfielder Lundstram recalled a painful experience that he wants to put right.

He said: “The run (to Seville) was great… not so great memories of the Champions League.

“We didn’t quite perform as well as we’d want to and we want to try and correct that this year and make a better show of ourselves. So we do want to qualify.

“It’s not nice when you know you didn’t perform to the level you know you’re capable of and you’ve shown and we know we can do better.

“Playing up against absolute world-class players every other week is great experience but it would have been a better experience if we done a little bit better, of course it would.

“So hopefully, we can we can progress through to the group stages, we can put in a better performance but of course that’s a distance away.

“Hopefully, we have four games until that point so we can cross that bridge when it comes.”