RANGERS boss Pedro Caixinha has urged his anxious side to relax after watching them scrape into the Betfred Cup semi-finals.
Gers claimed their place in Thursday’s draw for the last four by beating Partick Thistle 3-1 after extra time.
But they should have got the job done inside 90 minutes, with Daniel Candeias especially guilty after he managed to round Jags keeper Ryan Scully and still fail to find the net.
The Portuguese wideman made amends, though, putting Gers ahead early during extra time before Eduardo Herrara made the result safe.
The Mexican’s compatriot Carlos Pena marked his first start for Gers with the opener 10 minutes after half-time but Kris Doolan forced the additional half-hour with his last-gasp leveller.
Caiximha said: “You can see the boys are working really hard. When the second goal doesn’t come, they try too hard and maybe they rush the final pass.
“They need to slow down. Daniel’s chance is what I am talking about. He was rushing too much.
“You could see the confidence after we went two goals up in extra time.”
Thistle boss Alan Archibald said: “Disappointment is the over-riding emotion. I’m a bit bemused, I didn’t see that coming at the start of extra time.
“I thought we finished the game really strongly. Probably the worst thing that could have happened was the final whistle because I felt we were strong and Rangers were sitting off us. I thought we deserved our goal at the time.”
Meanwhile, Neil Lennon insisted he was a “very happy man” despite seeing his Hibernian side make hard work of Livingston in their quarter-final.
Hibs eventually prevailed 3-2 thanks to a late Anthony Stokes penalty, but failed to deliver the improvements demanded by Lennon following Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Motherwell.
“You’re looking at a very happy man here,” he said. “I thought we were excellent.
“We’re in the semi-final, we got the win, we played good football, we created umpteen chances and thoroughly deserved to win the game.
“It might have been a bit nervy at times but I thought we had good control of the game for long periods.”
Betfred Cup: Neil Lennon happy despite Hibs making hard work of beating Livingston
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