Butland Encouraged by Rangers’ Momentum Following Europa League Draw

Jack Butland stated that the Rangers changing room held sentiments of both disappointment and pride after their 1-1 Europa League stalemate against Tottenham on Thursday. Hamza Igamane netted the opening goal just 81 seconds into the second half, but Dejan Kulusevski secured a point for Spurs at Ibrox. Philippe Clement’s team is now set to compete in Sunday’s League Cup final against Celtic, having maintained an unbeaten streak of nine matches, and is in a strong position to advance to the knockout stages in Europe. “We felt that we deserved to win the game and one moment sort of took that away from us,” Butland commented. “So it’s a testament to how well the boys played, that we’re a little bit disappointed at the same time as being really proud of what we did.” “When we play as a collective unit like that, we can cause any team problems and we showed that. So really proud of that. It’s been coming, too long coming, but we’re getting there.” “We’re building some momentum and it’s important that we continue that on Sunday. We have to and that’s all that matters now.” Butland attributes Rangers’ recent strong performance, as they navigate the demanding festive period, to their focus on executing fundamental tasks effectively. “Winning is a habit and if you don’t do smaller things right that can lead into doing bigger things wrong and ultimately results not going your way,” the England international added. “So we’ve really sort of focused on getting some basics right, that perhaps we lost at times and that’s just allowed us to be to be solid, clean sheets and picking up results, and that’s given us the opportunity to do that a bit momentum.”