Borna Barisic believes Rangers were caught up in a perfect Champions League storm that left his team battered, bruised and beaten.
But he is convinced it is the ONLY place they want to be in Europe next season. The Croatian left back knows full well that Rangers have been dubbed the worst team ever to compete in the top tier tournament and while he accepts that the stats don’t lie - no points from six games and a goal difference of minus 20 - he is adamant a combination of the luck of the draw and a horrendous injury pile-up contributed the badge of dishonour they’ve had pinned to their blue jerseys.
Speaking after the 3-1 defeat at home to Ajax pulled down the curtain on their campaign from hell, Barisic said: “I cannot be happy because we lost against a good side. We wanted to have a positive result to end the Champions League and we are disappointed. There are not many positives (from the whole campaign). We are disappointed. We wanted to play in the Champions League.
“We qualified, which was a good thing, and we wanted to enjoy it, but it was a very tough campaign for us. We learned a lot. We want to achieve it next year and be better.”
Asked why Rangers failed to kick on from reaching the Europa Cup final less than six months ago, the 29-year-old who turns 30 a week today, is adamant the gulf in quality between the two competitions cannot be overstated. He said: “It didn’t happen because this is Champions League. It’s another level.
“No-one expected that we would do well in the Europa League and we went into the Champions League and tried to play our part ... I mean, there are clubs with squads of £400, 500, 600million. Our group was very tough, but we need to respect the opponent and talk about that also.
“With all due respect, I don’t think Dortmund (beaten by Gers last season) are better than Napoli, or Liverpool, or even Ajax. That’s my opinion at this moment. Sometimes results show you. They are not the same level as last season, you can see that. We also had a very hard group and we have not been at that level. You can see our results, that’s the reality.are just better than us.
“We can now analyse all night what’s happened, but you know, we also have a lot of injured players. It’s not easy to play on three fronts with the squad. We tried, we learned, we are not happy because of this. This is the Champions League, not the Europa League. And also, if we are talking about last year, the final was a big achievement if you look at which squads we play.”
Rangers were without nine injured players and the suspended John Lundstram on Tuesday night and Barisic accepts it was just too big an ask for a team whose confidence had taken a hit from their five previous outings at this level. He added: “You watch it on TV. I don’t think many of us had played Champions League, maybe one or two - it doesn’t matter.
“When you watch on TV, it is something else compared to when you play. And then you have all the injured players ... it is not an excuse, but that’s the reality. We are playing against teams that are four, five, six times more expensive than us.
“We need to be realistic, but we learned a lot and we want to achieve that next year. With more experience, we will be better. And when you experience the Champions League, you want to play it again next year. We will do everything to be there.”
While Barisic will do his best to park the heartache of Europe, it won’t be his last appearance on foreign fields this season. The defender heads to Qatar with Croatia after the final league game before the World Cup on November 12 and admits he is itching to face Morocco, Canada and Belgium in the group stage.
“I cannot wait to go to the World Cup, I am very excited about that,” he admitted. “That motivates me a lot. Playing Champions League and World Cup would be something amazing. I could not imagine it, but that’s the now, that’s the result of the things I have done in the past few years - how much I train, how much I sacrifice. I did that for this moment and I am proud.”
And while he believes a winter World Cup will find the players operating at a better level of fitness than they would do at the end of a hard domestic season in the season, Barisic admits that post-Qatar will be an unknown quantity for the players who are going. For the World Cup, for players I think it is better because we are fresher now than in June,” he said. “But when we come back, it will be different, for sure.
“I don’t know how we will feel, but listen, this is the top level and if you want to go to the World Cup, you need to come back and perform again. No-one will ask you if you are tired mentally or physically. We will see, we have never experienced this.”
