Alan Rough thinks Portuguese sides could have been overrated this season and as a result Rangers' win over Braga in the Europa League may not suggest they can repeat the trick with Bayer Leverkusen.
Rangers have seen their domestic season derailed since the winter break and now have the Europa League as the only cup competition they can win.
Steven Gerrard’s side have defied expectations in Europe, first by making it out of the Europa League group stage consisting of teams such as FC Porto and Feyenoord, and then beating Braga over two legs in the last 32.
However, they will face Bundesliga giants Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the last 16 tie at Ibrox on Thursday night.
Rangers are counting on raising their game in Europe despite their poor form in Scotland and Rough admits that they have certainly shown the ability to do so this season.
However, Rough thinks Braga were rated too highly and Leverkusen could be a completely different kettle of fish.
The former goalkeeper said on PLZ Soccer's The Football Show: “This is one of the occasions they have upped their game.
“They have upped their game against Celtic and they have upped their game in all the European competitions.
“It is hard to put your finger on why as we all know the form they are in and it is poor in the league.
“So, it might be home advantage, the crowd behind him, players’ sort of taking the pressure away from the league and they have certainly done it.
“But they could be up against it this time because we all spoke about Braga and how good they were, but I don’t know if you noticed that night that every Portuguese team got turfed out of that competition.
"Maybe the Portuguese football is not as great as we thought it was. But certainly the German league is super.”
Rangers did manage to get back to winning ways at the weekend when they beat Ross County 1-0 in the league.
