Football News

Mark Hateley defended Rangers’ recent European record during a radio debate with fellow Englishman and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour - as the Ibrox hero also refuted a claim by Alan Brazil about Saturday’s Old Firm derby.

During the talkSPORT breakfast show, Hateley was invited on to discuss the huge top of the table Scottish Premiership clash at Celtic Park this weekend. However, Parlour chipped in by pointing to Greek side Olympiacos reaching the Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina after they hammered English Premier League outfit Aston Villa over two legs.

The former England international asked why why the Old Firm haven’t performed better at that level but Hateley was quick to slapdown the Gunners' hero. Hateley let him know Rangers reached the final of the Europa League just two years ago under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and also reached the last-16 the previous season where they lost to Slavia Prague.

Parlour said: “We were talking earlier about Olympiacos being in the final of the Europa Conference League, beating Aston Villa, and I’m amazed that Celtic and Rangers don’t have really good runs in Europe at that sort of level because they’ve got the history over the years.”

Hateley said: “I don't think you can aim that at Rangers over the last three of four years because we’ve been to a final, quarter finals and last-16s and all that sort of stuff so we’ve been there or thereabouts.”

Moving onto Saturday’s clash and Brazil then spoke of Rangers’ slow start in the last Old Firm derby when they were a goal down after 21 seconds and conceded a second before half-time. They fought back and the epic game eventually ended 3-3.

Celtic-daft Brazil said: “Rangers were murder in that first half. If I was manager of

Aston Villa Alan Brazil Giovanni Van-Bronckhorst Ray Parlour