Fernandez (centre) scored a late equaliser for Sporting in Glasgow

Sporting coach Paulo Sergio believes his side will have to at least match their performance at Ibrox to knock Rangers out of the Europa League.

The Portuguese will progress to the last 16 if Rangers fail to score away from home on Thursday after a 1-1 draw.

"We are still going to have a lot of work to do in that game," said Sergio, whose side scored a late equaliser.

"We have a lot of respect for Rangers and we will need to do the same, if not more, in the second leg."

Rangers survived a nervous first half to deservedly take the lead through Steven Whittaker after 66 minutes before Matias Fernandez equalised in the closing minutes.

We had control of the game and had three or four chances in the first half and Rangers had one Sporting coach Paulo Sergio

But Sergio believes his side, under pressure because of indifferent domestic form, should have capitalised on their own early chances.

"First of all, we tried to win, but at the end of this game, a draw is a good result for us," said the coach.

"We had control of the game and had three or four chances in the first half and Rangers had one.

"They scored a goal from a corner in the second half and we had to take more risks.

"We created chances and got the goal that put us in a better position for the second leg."

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