Paolo Amodio believes that he is on the brink of the first ever win in Progres Niederkorn’s European history.
After 12 matches without a win the minnows from Luxembourg went down 1-0 to Sevco at Ibrox last night.
A full house of gullibles turned up expecting Martyn Waghorn to run riot as if he was back in the Scottish Championship but the chunky striker was firing blanks.
Kenny Miller scored the only goal of the game late in the first half to give Sevco a 1-0 lead with Amodio upbeat about Tuesday’s return match.
“I think all the pressure is on Rangers to make sure they go through,” the BBC reported the Progres boss saying after the match.
“They probably expected to win tonight by five or six goals and it’s not the case, so anything could happen next week.”
As well as failing to win a match in UEFA competitions Progres have scored just one goal- in 1981 in a 1-1 draw against Glentoran.
Defending a 1-0 lead the pressure will all be on Pedro Caixinha as the fifth best coach in Qatar tries to overcome the fourth best team in Luxembourg.
Only three of the players snapped up in the summer spending spree started the match with Waghorn joined by stalwarts such as Jason Holt and James Tavernier from last season’s failures.
A Europa League exit at the first round stage could kill off the Caixinha revolution before the Fair Fortnight gets underway with Amodio well aware of the prize.
“We will do our best,” he added. “We will start with 0-0 next week and anything is possible in football.”
