Glasgow Rangers of Scotland duo, Joe Aribo and Leon Aderemi Balogun have received a charge for total concentration ahead of their clash with Olympique Lyon of France in the UEFA Europa League, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although Gerrard pointed out that he is happy knowing he has almost a full arsenal of players fit for Thursday’s fixture, the Liverpool of England legend conceded that his side are up against a tough opponent.
With that in view, Aribo, Balogun and The Gers’ other players have been warned by Gerrard, who will go into his 50th European tie as Rangers boss, that Lyon are arguably the best team his side will have faced so far.
The Light Blues host the Ligue 1 outfit in their Group A opener at Ibrox on Thursday night, ahead of which Gerrard also confirmed that Filip Helander has had surgery on a knee problem that will keep him out, but Connor Goldson is available again after Covid-19 isolation.
Since Gerrard took over as Gers manager in 2018, he has garnered a record of 25 wins, 16 draws and eight defeats against European opposition, but he is giving enough respect to Lyon, which he noted has a squad for the UEFA Champions League.
He admitted that he rates as top class the French side, now coached by Peter Bosz, who guided Bayer Leverkusen of Germany to victory over the Scottish Champions in the last-16 of the same competition in 2020.
Gerrard submitted: “They are arguably the best. At full strength Lyon are very much a Champions League team with Champions League-calibre players, they have a manager who got this job on the back of doing ever so well as the Bayer Leverkusen manager.
“He has been here before, he knows what we are about so this is a real big test tomorrow and there is no doubt about it we have to be at our best and that goes for both sides of the game.
“We have to have a high level of focus and concentration because, if you don’t against these teams, you can be punished and punished very quickly so it is a real good test and challenge.
“But we have to have our own confidence and belief that we can play at this level, we can compete and at the right times during the game we have to show bravery that we can hurt the opposition as well.”
