Filip Helander: 'We must be at our best against Royal Antwerp'

Filip Helander believes Rangers will have to be at their European best when they take on Royal Antwerp.

Steven Gerrard's side are unbeaten in the Europa League this season and qualified as group winners from a section including Portugal's Benfica, Lech Poznan of Poland and Standard Liege, also from the Jupiler Pro League.

Rangers won four and drew two of their six Group D games while building up a commanding lead over Old Firm rivals Celtic in the Scottish Premiership which now stands at 15 points after the Hoops' 1-0 win over Aberdeen on Wednesday night.

The 27-year-old Sweden defender, who signed for Rangers from Italian side Bologna in July 2019, believes standards have to be kept high against Antwerp, who sit second behind Club Brugge in the Belgian league.

He said: "We are in a good place. The results we have had so far have been good and the confidence in the team is great, so obviously that is a good start.

"But we know that we have to perform at a very high level again to get us where we want to be.

"We always look to improve and when you play good teams you have to perform at a high level, a bad game puts you out of the tournament so you have to get up to that level every game.

"It is a top team in Belgium, it is going to be a big challenge for us but we are looking forward to the game and hope it will be a good one."