Bremen fire Rangers warning March 06 2008
Werder Bremen may be challenging for the Bundesliga title this season but coach Thomas Schaaf has warned Rangers their full focus will be on the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
The Germans sit just four points behind leaders Bayern Munich in the title race but all thoughts of domestic football will be forgotten when they roll up at Ibrox this evening.
Both teams suffered the disappointment of crashing out of the Champions League earlier in the campaign and are both equally determined to maintain their respective European runs.
Bremen are one of the favourites for the trophy ahead of the first leg at Ibrox, having reached the semi-finals last season, and Schaaf insisted: "The UEFA Cup is the most important thing now because all we look to is the next game and the next game for us is this game against Rangers.
"The next game is the most important and this where we are going to put all our efforts."
Rangers boss Walter Smith is expected to persist with his tried and trusted 4-5-1 formation, with Daniel Cousin likely to be deployed as a lone striker, but Schaaf expects a positive approach from their hosts.
He said: "Rangers can only play when they play at full burst. People expect that here, they don't want to wait and see the team holding back.
"You also need to have a certain amount of discipline but I think they will pretty much be going forward."
Panathinaikos earned a goalless draw at Ibrox in the last round before exiting on away goals in the second leg in Athens and the Bremen boss is well aware of the importance of taking an advantage back to Germany next week.
He added: "It's always important to score, especially away, so we will be very happy if we can score an away goal.
"But we know that this game is over two legs. We start with our best efforts here hoping we have something we can take back to Bremen."
Schaaf visited Glasgow as a player with Bremen when they faced Celtic in the 1988/89 European Cup and, when asked for his memories of the city, he replied simply: "The most important memory was that we won."