STEVEN GERRARD has challenged Rangers to raise their levels and clinch a Europa League knock-out berth after a disappointing draw with Brondby.

The champions missed the chance to move above Sparta Prague in the Group A standings as they laboured to a share of the spoils in Denmark to leave them with four points from their first four games.

A late Ianis Hagi strike cancelled out Leon Balogun's own goal on the stroke of half time but there was no dramatic winner despite an improved performance after the interval.

Rangers now know that they can earn Europa League football after Christmas for the third successive season if they can clinch the right result at home to Sparta on matchday five.

Gerrard said: “I think after the start we made, having lost two games, to have the opportunity to win by two clear goals and to qualify is probably a decent position to be in considering we lost the first two games.

“We’re going to need a better level of performance, certainly from the first half point of view if we’re going to go and achieve that.

"But it’s there for us [at] Ibrox, in front of a full house. It’s a massive game.

“I don’t think we’ve really got going in terms of the Europa league campaign so far, so hopefully we can keep everyone fit and healthy and we can put a real strong side out that can give us a chance of going and achieving that.

“I just don’t think we got going. I don’t think there was much wrong from a defensive or organisation point of view.

“We’ve conceded too many set pieces over the course of the game. We’ve conceded a sloppy goal again.

"But in terms of quality and what we brought to the game, we were nowhere near it.

“To be honest, I thought the game in general, the quality was really low."