Glasgow's smiles better says the old saying yet Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers are going to have to go some distance to wipe away the frustrated frowns stretching round the city’s southside tomorrow night.
We’re heading towards summer but the dark clouds are refusing to shift from overhead at Ibrox.
From dreaming of a historic Europa League, Premiership and Scottish Cup treble just over a week ago, the Gers faithful are now contemplating a nightmare scenario.
Failure to beat Celtic at Hampden in Sunday’s cup semi-final would leave their Parkhead foes on course for a fifth domestic clean sweep in six years.
It’s been a breakneck collapse from a team that just nine months ago strolled to the title with a 25-point lead.
Now as they find themselves back in the subservient role they’d spent a decade battling to escape, the stern faces and tense looks worn throughout the journey have returned.
The fact that European progress is also hanging in the balance after Rangers allowed Braga to chisel out a 1-0 lead at their quarter-final foes’ striking Quarry home last week has now done nothing to relieve the tension.
But while the pressure levels rise for Rangers, Braga boss Carlos Carvalhal’s side are looking increasingly relaxed.
A team that had not managed to string more than two wins together all season is now bounding along after racking up four on the bounce.
And Carvalhal has encouraged his youthful side to savour every moment as they look to repeat the clubs’ 2011 run to the final.
The former Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday boss said: "We want to enjoy the game but at the same time we are not joking of course, we play serious to win.
"But even before the first game I told the players that they must enjoy this part of the competition, they must enjoy these games.
“If you have the opportunity to do this, let's do the maximum, let's give our best creativity and intensity but enjoy the game at the same time and I think my team usually enjoy the game, you can see that.
"We like the ball, we like to play, we try to be a threat all the time to the opponents.
"We did enough to score one goal, in the first half we scored two goals - one was disallowed by VAR - another shot hit the post
"We reacted very well in the transitions because Rangers are very strong in the offensive transitions but we didn't concede too many opportunities.”
Carvalhal was in the Ibrox directors box for the Old Firm clash as he witnessed Celtic recording a result that has all but ended their one-season reign as champions.
But what he saw last week in Portugal has raised his opinion of van Bronckhorst’s team rather than reaffirming the belief they’re a team on the wane.
He said: ”Rangers played better in my opinion than the Old Firm game.
"They were more compact and solid.
"We saw a lot of positive things about Glasgow Rangers in the last games, more positive than negative.
"So that's why we respected them in the first leg.
“I said to my boys and also the Portuguese press that it will be a very tough game because Glasgow Rangers have a very good squad."
Carvalhal knew his team had also earned van Bronckhorst’s respect when he saw Gers lining up for the second half of last week’s meeting at the Estadio Municipal with midfielder John Lundstram shunted back into a three-man defence.
The move put the brakes on a Braga attack that had threatened to bulldoze straight through the Ibrox outfit and flatten their hopes of reaching the last four for the first time since their own run to the completions final in 2008.
But it also took away the midfield platform which had allowed van Bronckhorst’s side to come close three times inside the opening 25 minutes before Abel Ruiz handed the hosts the first-leg advantage.
Carvalhal reckons Rangers will maintain their respectful attitude to his side but the restraint they displayed in Portugal will go as they respond to a packed-out Ibrox.
But that might also just play into his side’s hands as they seek to tee up a showdown of their own with either RB Leipzig or Atalanta in the last four.
"In the second half Rangers respected us more,” he explained. “The right-back Tavernier went more to attack but the three defenders and two midfielders stayed all the time in their deep positions.
"That’s why Rangers had more possession near to defence but not in the offensive side of the pitch.
"They tried to push us in the press, to put long balls behind and make use of the speed of the players up front but we acted very well.
“We understood the moment to press at Goldson but at the same time we protected the midfield so we did not concede goal situations.
"If a team has six players back it will be more difficult for us to create chances but at the same time it was more difficult also for Glasgow Rangers to create chances too because of that.”
Asked if he expected Rangers to come out all guns firing after firing blanks in a first leg in which they failed to record a single effort on target, he said: "I believe that this can happen and believe that we will also try to find spaces to create more chances than last Thursday.
"If Glasgow Rangers will create more chances, we can also create more chances in a game like that. Everything is open, 50/50, let's see.
"A lot of goals will be very difficult because Glasgow Rangers is a strong team.
“But we will push high against the opposition because that is the way we play and we will see what will happen.”
