STEVEN GERRARD has backed striker Florian Kamberi to grab his Europa League chance after netting his first goal for Rangers.

Kamberi saw his superb second half efforts go to waste as Rangers drew with St Johnstone on Sunday.

But he will now replace the suspended Alfredo Morelos as the Gers look to convert their 3-2 advantage over Braga into a Europa League last 16 berth.

Gerrard said: “I wanted to start him on Sunday but obviously the risk of him playing a full game and not being fresh on Wednesday was one that I was juggling about with. But when we went 1-0 down I needed to twist and I did that. I thought he was absolutely outstanding.

"On that performance he plays, for sure. You can’t ignore that, that was some impact.

“He got Man of the Match and everyone should have been talking about Flo Kamberi.

"They will talk about Rangers as a defensive unit and that is my responsibility that I need to solve.

“On the evidence of that, yeah, for sure [he can step up]. It will be a different type of game, he is going to have to be selfless and do some real, dirty, strong running and sacrifice himself for the team at times, of course he will.

“But you can see that if he gets an opportunity then he knows where the back of the net is. Which, for us, is a real big positive for us.”