Celtic Champions League exit a warning, says Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard says Celtic's Champions League exit should be a warning to his Rangers squad ahead of the second leg of their Europa League qualifier against FC Midtjylland.

The Hoops crashed out after suffering a shock 4-3 defeat to Romanian champions Cluj at Parkhead.

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Rangers have their own Europa League ambitions to focus on and will now look complete the job against FC Midtjylland and move a step closer to the group stages after last week's 4-2 win in Denmark.

And Gerrard wants his men to take note of Celtic's fate and take appropriate action, saying: "What it shows last night is that European ties are never over, even when you get a positive result in the first leg.

"Some of these teams that people don't know much about - Cluj from Romania for example or Midtjylland from Denmark - they carry a huge threat.

"They are so desperate for financial reasons to progress, like most of us, so my players need to take note of last night and make sure we deal with our second leg much better."

Celtic's early exit from UEFA's main competition has damaged hopes of Scotland's European representatives being able to enter at a later date.

All four Scottish sides were forced to kick-off at the first qualifying round this season and Gerrard said: "It's certainly going to be detrimental because all the Scottish teams need to do as well we can to improve the coefficient and give ourselves an advantage in these European competitions.

"From that aspect, it's very disappointing.

"But for me, I'm the manager of Rangers and my focus is on and the challenges that face us."

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