Rothwell seeks fast Premiership start to build on Euro progress

BBC News

01-08-2025

Rangers midfielder Joe Rothwell insists they have full focus on the start of the Premiership campaign after overcoming Panathinaikos.The Ibrox side travel to face Motherwell looking for a fast start as they seek to challenge champions Celtic, with a Champions League third qualifying round home tie against Viktoria Plzeň to follow on Tuesday."It was just about getting through and winning the tie, which thankfully we did," Rothwell said of the 3-1 aggregate win over the Greek side."That can put us in a good place to come and start the Premiership."I said when I came here, European football was a massive pull. So, to give ourselves a chance to progress and get into the Champions League, which is ultimately what we would like to do, but to put in place now that we've guaranteed European football, that's massive for us."So we'll build on it. Now our focus has shifted away from that and on to the league."I think we know, as players, it's going to be massive. Obviously, getting off to a winning start is what we want to do."Rothwell, who joined from Bournemouth on a three-year deal this summer, expects Premiership teams to be motivated to overcome Rangers as they seek to assert themselves as title contenders."Everyone's going to want to beat us," he said. "So we want to go out there and put on a real show but, ultimately, it's a result-based business and we're going there to win the game."I think it's going to be fast and erratic at the start of the games and it's down to us to hopefully take control of the games and build some momentum as quickly as we can."