RECORDINGS of Rangers’ epic encounter with Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of the Europa League knockout round play-off at Ibrox on Thursday night are set to be replayed on countless occasions by supporters in the coming days. 

The Scottish champions’ manager, coaching staff and players, too, will doubtless have a look back over their rousing display against their feted German rivals a few times.

And who can blame them? James Tavernier and all of his team mates were immense from kick-off to the final whistle in front of a raucous 47,709-strong crowd and deserved to draw 2-2 on the night and win 6-4 on aggregate against formidable opponents who were expected to triumph and triumph comfortably.

But as he reflected on a result that he rated as one of the greatest of his career yesterday, Van Bronckhorst admitted that he is expecting to see re-runs of the inspired showing every time his team take to the field in the remaining games of the season.

A high bar has been set, but he will not allow his charges, who are three points behind Celtic at the top of the cinch Premiership table with just 11 matches remaining, to drop their standards in the league meeting with Motherwell in Govan tomorrow or thereafter. 

“We want to play this way every time we play,” he said. “We go back now to the domestic league so we cannot afford another drop of points (Rangers drew 1-1 with Dundee United at Tannadice last Sunday). We have to have the same level of play.

“On Thursday we created good chances to score and we scored twice. Our aim now for Sunday is to create as many chances as possible. But in the end we have to have the three points.

“I don’t think it will be difficult to switch from Europe to the league. Of course it’s a switch to the league, but we’re here to win games and to win silverware. It doesn’t matter which competition you play, you have to be ready from the first minute. So I think the transition will be easy.

“Of course it’s another dynamic. If you are in the last 16 of the Europa League, there is a lot of media coverage, a lot of people want to know about the game. It’s a big podium because your games are watched all over Europe.

“But in the end it’s just a football game on the football pitch against 11 players. If you approach a game like that, it will be very easy (to adapt).”

Rangers certainly adapted well after enduring a torrid opening 45 minutes against Dortmund on Thursday night and Van Bronckhorst has rightly been praised for the tactical change he made at half-time.

He took off Borna Barisic, put on Leon Balogun, moved John Lundstram from midfield to defence, pushed Calvin Bassey out to wing back and changed from a 4-3-3 formation to a 5-3-2 set-up. His team was transformed as a result. 

The second-half showed how astute a coach the former Feyenoord manager is and underlined that his players can approach games in many different ways. It is certainly an experiment that he is prepared to repeat should the occasion demand it. 

“We knew they were capable of playing in many ways,” he said. “I didn’t want to start the game in that system, because you want to start the game well and try to be on the front foot and score the first goal, which we did.

“I always had in mind there was a possibility that they would only need one goal to get it into extra-time.

“So we prepared the team for this moment. I had to use it earlier than expected. But I think that change was needed and they executed the plan really well. We were much more stable defensively, but also had a lot of space to damage them in the transition moments.

“Once they had to score, they would open up the space for us to exploit. The game went as planned for us. We had a lot of time in the preparation for both games with the team and in the end it was all worth it. We need to be dynamic with the switch of systems.”

Lundstram, who had scored a screamer in the 4-2 win in the Westfalenstadion seven days earlier, showed how versatile he can be by shifting to centre half and acquitting himself brilliantly. Van Bronckhorst refused to rule out deploying the Englishman there again.

“It depends on who we play,” he said. “But I used John in the back three when we played Hibs away and changed after scoring a penalty. It came at a moment when we didn't have many central defenders in the squad because of injury.

“For me, the most important thing is that he can also switch into midfield when he does that. John can fit that role quite easily, but his more natural role is midfield.”

Alfredo Morelos was another of those who benefitted from the sudden switch in formation; the Colombian striker set up Ryan Kent for a goal that was controversially disallowed and was unfortunate not to score himself.

Van Bronckhorst is keen to see the mercurial forward continue to create and convert chances and believes that if he maintains his rich vein of form that Rangers will keep applying pressure to Celtic in the Premiership. 

"Alfredo had a good performance,” he said. "He had a better second-half than first-half. At the beginning of the first-half he had some problems with the physicality of both defenders. He lost too many balls when he had to control them. In the second-half, he was much more dominant like we know him.

"You can see that once he has the ball and keeps the ball, we can move from him with runs from Ryan and midfield. I am really happy with his body language, his whole performance and the way he shines. But he has to keep that momentum along with all the other players.”