Van Bronckhorst: Rangers sent out message with Lyon draw
The Ibrox side rounded off their Europa League group with a 1-1 draw in France
Giovanni Van Bronckhorst was pleased with the message Rangers sent out in their deserved 1-1 Europa League draw against Lyon in France.
The Ibrox men had already qualified for the knockout stage play-offs ahead of the final Group A game against the section winners, but they prevented the home side making it six wins out of six.
Scott Wright's deflected goal before the break was cancelled out by a Calvin Bassey own goal early in the second half as Van Bronckhorst made it five matches unbeaten as Light Blues boss.
Rangers can look forward to the play-off draw on December 13, where they could face Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Porto, Sheriff Tiraspol, Zenit St Petersburg or Atalanta.
Afterwards, the Dutchman said: "We were very happy with the performance. It can be really tough, especially away from home in Europe.
"Today it was against a tough opponent, but I think we were very brave with our possession. We like to play a possession game from the back and many times we had the right solutions.
"Overall I am really happy with the performance. Maybe we were dominant, but in the second half we didn't create too many chances.
"In the end there were some dangerous crosses, but also Lyon had some chances.
"But I am very happy with the message we showed as a team. We came here not to defend, we came here to play our game and to develop our team because it is only my fifth game in charge with this team.
"I am happy that they are picking up my style of play, so in that aspect I am very happy with the performance."
The Ibrox boss was up against long-time friend, Lyon boss Peter Bosz, with the relationship between the two Dutchmen stretching back to when Van Bronckhorst was coming through the Feyenoord academy and Bosz was first-team captain.
However, asked if he felt sorry for his former team-mate after stopping him completing the clean sweep of Group A wins, Van Bronckhorst said: "No, I don't feel sorry for him because I am the coach of Rangers. I want the best result for my team.
"I am just happy we are both through to the next stages, so I am very happy for him as well."
In a busy December schedule, Van Bronckhorst will immediately turn his attention to the cinch Premiership game against Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday.
He said: "We are flying straight back to Scotland now to prepare for the game, but we are used to it.
"There are only two days of rest and we will do everything we can tomorrow, we will recover and prepare ourselves technically for Hearts, which is a tough away game for us.
"But I am confident about my team with the performance we had today, so it is a case of resting really well and preparing for Sunday."