Nico Raskin’s Champions League scouting mission has Rangers ‘result first performance second’ plan in action

The young Belgian played an integral role in the first leg and believes Rangers can see off Servette away from home

Nico Raskin’s homework could come in handy as Rangers head to Switzerland seeking to keep their Champions League dream alive.

Raskin didn’t miss a minute as his Belgian buddies Genk botched their bid to get past Servette in the last round. And he has vowed there’s no way Rangers will be lured into making the same mistake. Raskin plugged into both legs on TV as the Swiss refused to buckle to the Belgians. Raskin’s info told him Genk believed they had hurdled the hard work with a tidy 1-1 draw in Geneva in their first leg. But his confident countrymen came a cropper at home.

Genk also got a lead in the second match, playing against 10 men, but bowed out on penalties following a 2-2 tie. Raskin insists there’s no way Rangers will take their first leg superiority – in performance and the 2-1 result – for granted. The 22-year-old midfielder has warned that battling Servette will be a tough nut to crack. Raskin said: “I watched both legs of Genk against Servette.

“But I don’t think we will under-estimate them at all. We know we are going to have to give everything in this game to get to the next round. It is result first, performance second for us at this moment. It is always good to add both together though.”

Gers conjured up 22 efforts at goal against Servette on Wednesday night at Ibrox. Michael Beale’s boys got Ibrox bouncing with James Tavernier’s sixth-minute penalty and a first club goal for Cyriel Dessers within a quarter of an hour. But they were left in no doubt about the durability of Rene Weiler’s side.

Chris Bedia responded from the spot before half-time and keeper Joel Mall produced terrific saves to frustrate Gers. And the Swiss side survived the 59th-minute red card for David Douline without any further damage to their qualifying hopes.

Rangers manager Beale called his side wasteful – and Raskin agreed with him. He vowed that Gers won’t be defending a 2-1 advantage on Tuesday night but instead will be hellbent on increasing it in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd at Stade de Geneve. They will need to be far more lethal in front of goal to do so and reach the play-off round where last year’s rivals PSV Eindhoven – 4-1 first-leg winners over Sturm Graz – likely lie in wait.