Rangers draw important in context of Tottenham injuries, says Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou is confident Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at Rangers will end up being an important point in the context of their Europa League campaign.

Spurs put in another disjointed performance as they failed to win for a fifth straight game but it could have been much worse at Ibrox.

Hamza Igamane opened the scoring for the home side and, even though Dejan Kulusevski equalised, it took a brilliant stop from Fraser Forster late on to deny Cyriel Dessers a winner for Rangers.

Spurs are playing with depleted numbers right now with defenders Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies all sidelined, something Spurs boss Postecoglou said is having an impact.

“I think it’s kind of the situation at the moment we’re in, we’re in a bit of a struggle, down on numbers, a lot of them we’re asking for a lot of repeated efforts, it takes it’s toll,” said the Australian, who is coming under increased scrutiny from some sections of the Spurs support.

“The next round of European games are not for a while which will help for sure. It’ll be an important point for us.

“I thought the substitutes made a difference and we scored a good goal, had other good moments and a great save by Fraser [Forster] at the end.”

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Ex-Celtic boss Postecoglou has only won once in five trips to Ibrox as an opposing manager and he acknowledged the impact of a lively crowd.

“It’s expected in the context of the game, it’s tough game, the crowd and the atmosphere, tight first half, not many clear-cut chances,” he added.

“Then they scored early in the second half and the crowd gets behind them.

“They’re always difficult to play against here at Ibrox, especially on European nights.

“The nature of the contest, the atmosphere, not many teams come here and win so you kind of expect it to be a tough game.

“We weren’t anywhere near our best which I think is fair to say and at the same time, we’re in a period of games where we’re grinding through at the moment.

“Obviously [we are playing] with a fairly depleted squad. So, in the context of that, in the end, I think it was a good outcome for us.”