Valakari asserts Rangers’ dominant win is “no surprise” but irrelevant to St Johnstone’s upcoming challenge

Simo Valakari has stated that Rangers’ significant Europa League triumph in Nice “doesn’t make any difference to us,” as St Johnstone prepares to face the Ibrox team, aiming to exacerbate their domestic difficulties. Rangers, currently in third place and 11 points adrift of Premiership leaders Celtic, are scheduled to visit Perth on Sunday, following their 4-1 win in France. Valakari, the Saints’ manager, commented, “The one thing we cannot control is the form the opponent is in when they’re going to play against us.” He continued, “So basically, what happened in Rangers’ last match doesn’t make any difference to us. Now they play against us, and we start from zero.” Regarding Rangers’ performance against Nice, Valakari observed, “What I saw from the first minute from Rangers [against Nice] was a very determined team, who has been hurting because maybe they have not got the [domestic] results.” He added, “They wanted to show they are a good team, they are good players and they put a performance on, but that was last night and Sunday is a new game.” Valakari further remarked, “For me to see them play and score those goals, it was not a surprise because you see the quality of the players and it has been maybe just a matter of time before they start collecting these goals.” Valakari is maintaining a cautious approach despite his team’s recent win against Kilmarnock, which concluded a three-match losing streak and elevated Saints to ninth position in the league standings. He elaborated, “Of course we can talk about our process and where we want to take our club, but we need the results more for the outside noise to calm a little bit, like they are doing it the right way.” Valakari continued, “We know inside what we are doing. The results we have got lately have not been what we want but we see where we are going and we work towards it.” He concluded, “We know where we are, we are not now ‘Oh we win one match and everything is good.’ No, we are still a work in process.”