Maurice Edu: Rangers fired up for challenge on all four fronts

RANGERS Euro hero Maurice Edu says he can't wait for the crammed fixture schedule to kick in for real at Ibrox after firing the Gers into the last 16 of the Europa League.

Edu's injury time strike against Sporting Lisbon last night saw the Scottish champions progress on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate score.

Walter Smith's men are also still involved in all three domestic competitions and have outstanding fixtures still to be played.

But American international Edu says his team mates in the stretched Gers squad are well and truly up for the challenge of playing three games a week in the coming months.

He said: "It's a problem that we welcome. We would rather have games and the opportunity to win things.

"If you were to ask any professional footballer, they want to be involved in as many games as possible and be in the position to win games and have something to show for it at the end of the season.

"We would definitely have been disappointed to go out.

"A lot of people have been saying this competition isn't important to us because we want to focus on other games.

"But tonight we definitely showed that it is important to us. We are still involved in a number of competitions and want to go as far as we can in all of them.

"This performance defines what we are as a club. We showed a lot of resilience and desire and determination to fight our way back into the game and get something out of it. "

El-Hadji Diouf netted the opener - his first goal for Rangers - before goals from Pedro Mendes and Yannick Djalo looked set to seal the win for Sporting.

But it was Edu's goal that decided the tie in injury time.

He said: "To be honest, I thought we were always in the game. We never stopped believing in ourselves.

"We believed we had a chance of getting something out of the game and it showed. We fought until the dying minutes of the game and were able to get the goal to take us through. "

Next up is PSV Eindhoven and Edu added: "There are no easy games but we welcome the challenge.

"We know it's going to be an exciting draw and we are looking forward to it."