IT would have been easy for James Sands to go home, draw the curtains and hide himself away in a darkened room after Rangers returned to Glasgow from Naples yesterday.
The 3-0 defeat which they suffered against Napoli in the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday night was their fifth in the Champions League this season.
He and his team mates are now facing an unpalatable prospect as a result.
If they lose by two or more goals to Ajax at Ibrox in their final fixture on Tuesday evening they will have the worst group stage record of any side in the 30 year history of Europe’s premier club competition.
Their chances of avoiding that sorry fate suffered a blow in the second-half of the game in Italy when John Lundstram, whose combative qualities in the centre of the park are so important to his side against foreign opposition, picked up a booking and a suspension.
As if manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who is already without Filip Helander, Connor Goldson, John Souttar, Glen Kamara, Ryan Jack, Tom Lawrence and Ianis Hagi due to injuries, wasn’t missing enough important players as things stood.
It has, no doubt about it, been a tough return to the Champions League group stages for Rangers and their players could be forgiven for wanting to go away and forget about it all.
Yet, Sands, who was one of the visitors’ better performers in midweek after being deployed by Van Bronckhorst alongside Lundstram in a 4-2-3-1 formation, is not running away from the situation. Far from it.
The versatile United States internationalist has an upbeat new world outlook on life; he is adamant they can learn invaluable lessons from their encounter with a Napoli team some observers believe can challenge for the Champions League trophy this term if they analyse every aspect of the game.
“There are two ways you can look at it,” he said as he reflected on the match against Luciano Spalletti’s exceptional side.
“You can sit there and sulk or you can try and take something away from it. That has kind of been the message from the boss. It is something we will try to implement going forward.
“We are a locker room full of winners. When we lose a game like that 3-0 you are never happy. It is frustrating for us as a team. But I am sure it can be a positive season.”
So what exactly did Sands see in the match with the Serie A and Group A leaders which give him hope Rangers can beat Ajax and finish what has been a dire Champions League campaign on something of a high?
Sands is certain that coming up against the likes of Giovanni Simeone, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Tanguy Ndombele will only prove beneficial to them in the long-term.
“These are the best players in the world,” he said. “I think they’ve certainly proved so far they’re one of the strongest teams in the competition.
“The best team doesn’t always win the Champions League and we’ve seen that year after year. They will be up there, but I can’t say they’ll win it for sure.
“So the fact that we are stringing together passes and creating good chances shows that if we can do it against them we can do it against anyone.
“I thought there were more positives last night than in the previous fixtures. It is all about taking what we can learn from these experiences and using them. I think we can do that.
“We have to learn what worked and what didn’t work. With the home fans behind us, I think we can create even more against Ajax and that should make for a positive result.
“That’s going to be the main goal for us. The fans have waited a long time to see us in the Champions League so to get a home win would be special and something the fans definitely deserve.”
Sands, who played at centre half in the play-off matches against PSV Eindhoven back in August and the group games against Ajax in Amsterdam and Napoli in Glasgow last month, admitted that his side conceded two soft goals early on Wednesday evening.
But he was impressed by how they recovered from their poor start – they were 2-0 down after 16 minutes after allowing Simeone to score a brace – and created scoring opportunities of their own.
“I think it is definitely something that we can learn from,” he said. “These are the top teams and any chance you give them they will score from it.
“We had a little trouble closing out the wide areas, maybe gave them a little too much time to serve the crosses. But I think we adjusted well in the second-half and limited the chances they had.”
Sands has played in a variety of positions for Rangers since joining them on an 18 month loan from New York City back in January and is certain whoever comes in to replace Lundstram against Ajax will coper admirably.
“I think losing a character like Lunny will be difficult for us,” he said. “But that has kind of been the story of the season so far – guys stepping up and filling in for guys who have gone off injured. I think we can manage, we’ve got the talent to fill in for him. It’s a home game, and we expect a positive result.”
Rangers can still finish third and reach the Europa League preliminary round if they defeat Ajax, who ran out 4-0 victors at the Johan Cruyff Arena on the opening week of the competition, 5-0 next week.
Sands would be satisfied with a win – but will not rule out the remote possibility entirely.
“It was our objective from the start to be playing European football after the World Cup break,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly how many goals we’ll need but first and foremost it’s about getting a win. After that we can look at how many goals we need.”
