Rangers boss Michael Beale to leave PSV inquest until after Celtic clash

Michael Beale will postpone his inquest into Rangers humbling Champions League demise until after Sunday’s Old Firm game.

The Ibrox side lost 5-1 in the second leg of their play-off against PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands on Wednesday night to exit 7-3 on aggregate.

However, the Gers boss has no time to dissect a calamitous night for the club – for whom he has signed nine players this summer – as he looks to leapfrog Celtic by two points with a victory in the first meeting between the sides of the season.

Beale believes the Celtic game offers the perfect opportunity to bounce back.

He said: “Of course it does. If we can go into the international break on the back of a win this weekend I think we are in a really good place.

“We will be able to assess this first period in terms of bringing in new players up to September.

“We will always want to improve in the way that we play, but as I say the last two league games we’ve had two cleans sheets, we’ve scored six goals, six different goalscorers, we’ve had the most shots in the league. So we are moving in the right direction.

“I must pick the bones out of Wednesday night at the right time. It would be remiss of me to do that in between Wednesday and this huge game on Sunday.

“It’s important that we dust ourselves down and we show a big response as a team and as a club.

“It’s a great opportunity and the eyes of everybody will be on us for sure.”

After dropping down to the Europa League, Beale’s side will take on Real Betis from Spain.

It means another trip to Seville for Rangers, where they lost the 2022 Europa League final to Eintracht Frankfurt.

They will also face Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic and Cypriot champions Aris Limassol.

Beale said: “It’s a competition we know well. The club budgets for us being in the Europa League and for being in it after Christmas. That’s the aim.

“We wanted to play in the Champions League; I’m not going to walk away from the disappointment of not making it.

“Our schedule remains the same but we lose our Sundays until Christmas now because we’ll play Sundays.

“I think we’re in a really interesting group and the aim is to get out of that group and be in the Europa League into the New Year.

“We could have drawn Brighton or Sporting Lisbon I suppose, so looking at that way… listen Prague got an unbelievable result against Zagreb and that’s a rivalry in terms of we’ve played them before and we know them well.

“For the fans to go back to Seville, playing Betis, will bring back nice fond memories of the competition and Limassol are a team we don’t know so well in terms of not playing them before.

“What we know is that we’ll need our whole squad because we are playing three games a week all the way through to the Christmas break and it’s important to use the strength of the squad moving forward.

“I think the squad is well balanced but I think the team has a lot to prove. I’ve got a lot to prove as a coach and there’s a lot of opportunity for us moving forward.”