GIOVANNI van Bronckhorst today dismissed claims that his Rangers players have become “arrogant” following their historic win over Europa League favourites Borussia Dortmund and stressed they will treat their last 16 opponents Red Star Belgrade with total respect.

The Scottish champions recorded a famous 6-4 aggregate triumph over their German rivals Dortmund in the knockout round play-off after winning 4-2 away and drawing 2-2 at home last month.

Dragan Mladenovic, the former Rangers and Red Star midfielder who is now academy director at the Serbian giants, this week suggested that beating the Bundesliga outfit had made James Tavernier and his team mates overly confident.

But Van Bronckhorst has rubbished that accusation and stressed his charges will treat Dejan Stankovic’s men, who have won their national league four years running and topped their Europa League group, seriously.   

“Why are we arrogant?” he said. “I don’t see any of my players being arrogant - we are very humble in this moment.

“We enjoy being in Europe, but we respect every opponent we face and I don’t see any signs of arrogance in my team, in myself or the club.

“We are happy to be in this round and will do everything to win this tie.  But arrogant is not the word that comes to my mind when I see my players preparing for this game.”

Van Bronckhorst added: “Of course, we are happy that we overcame Dortmund. With the opponent we are facing now, it is going to be tough again. They were the group winners in their group. But we start all over again.

“We want to be in the next round, we are working hard and preparing well, as we did in the previous games, to be ready for tomorrow. I have full confidence we can have a good result. But in Europe every game is tough. We do everything possible to make sure we can go into the next round.”