Rangers manager Steven Gerrard insists his team will enter their Europa League group campaign with the aim of progressing after being drawn against Villarreal, Spartak Moscow and Rapid Vienna.

Gerrard and his players discovered their reward for coming through four qualifying ties against teams from Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Russia.

Rangers did it the hard way in the play-offs after red cards for Alfredo Morelos and Jon Flanagan forced them into a rearguard action during Thursday's second leg against Russian side Ufa.

But they came away with a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 aggregate win to maintain Gerrard's unbeaten start to management and allow them to look forward to at least six more European encounters this season.

"I'm very excited by it," Gerrard said. "It's brilliant for the players. It's reward for all the hard work and effort and the quality they have shown in the qualifying campaign.

"The three other teams are big names for us, great challenges, and we are really excited and looking forward to it.

"Being part of Rangers, it doesn't matter who the opponents are, you are always going into the game to try and win. We will never set up to draw or keep the score down. We will try and be as positive as we can be.

"We feel we are building something special here and these are the type of games we feel we all want to be part of.

"It's fantastic for the supporters and we'll go into the games full of confidence and belief that we can go and get the right results to progress. That's the way you have got to front it."