John Lundstram wants Rangers to use ‘aura’ of Ibrox when they face Liverpool

John Lundstram wants Rangers to use the “aura” of Ibrox to get off the mark in the Champions League when Liverpool visit on Wednesday night.

The Gers are participating in European football’s elite club competition for the first time in 12 years but Group A has begun with three defeats and they sit at the bottom of the section without a goal.

Rangers put up a good show at home to group leaders Napoli last month until they went down to 10 men before losing 3-0 and Lundstram also nodded to last season’s run to the Europa League final, where they beat clubs like Red Star, Braga and RB Leipzig and drew with Borussia Dortmund in Govan, to give him encouragement.

The boyhood Liverpool fan, who came through the youth system at Everton, said: “There’s something special about Ibrox on European nights. Anyone who has been here will have felt the atmosphere, felt the aura around the place.

“There’s just something that happens underneath the lights here, I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it.

“It gets everyone and gives you a lift. There’s something in the air and hopefully that can be the same again tomorrow.”

Rangers lost 2-0 at Anfield last Tuesday night without putting up much of a fight against the star-studded Reds, but Lundstram is looking for a more robust midfield battle this time.

The 28-year-old former Oxford and Sheffield United player said: “It’s great to come up against these players but they’re on the other team, you’ve got to block that out and play your own game and show them respect to a certain extent, but at the same time show them no respect as well.

“We have to try and get in amongst it.

“A lot of players can be great players when you have time on the ball, I think we’re great players when we have time on the ball but when you get up in someone’s face, things change.

“Hopefully if we can do that and our midfield match their midfield, that will be key.

“As long as we’re up against them and laying a glove on them, hopefully we can get something.”