Despite Walter Smith’s claims, Fiorentina’s Mario Santana is expecting another defensive performance from Rangers this evening.
The Stadio Artemio Franchi semi-final second leg promises to be extremely tense after last week’s 0-0 draw in Glasgow.
Rangers were widely criticised for their negative approach at Ibrox and their manager’s promises of a more attacking outlook haven’t convinced Santana.
“I’m going to tell you one thing – Rangers are one of the most difficult sides I have ever played against,” he said.
“I think that they will continue playing defensive football in Italy. We watched their previous games in the knockout stages and they play on the counterattack.
“The key to the game is to score an early goal that would force them to change their tactics.
“Our mission is to prevent them from scoring an away goal and we need to make an enormous effort to do that.
“Our team are confident we can win and we need to show that our League is far superior to the Scottish one.
“But we remain realistic because beating Rangers will be far from easy even at home.”
