A win over Benfica at Ibrox on Thursday night could seal Rangers a place in the first knockout round of this season’s Europa League, if Lech Poznan also lose to Standard Liege.
Rangers are in a good position to achieve that goal and Rough feels that they will want to win the game against Benfica in order to get qualification for the next round done and dusted.
The former goalkeeper pointed out that four of Rangers’ next five games are away from home and if Gerrard gets a chance to rest a few players in Europe next week it would be a massive boost for them in the Scottish Premiership title race.
Rough said on PLZ Soccer: “That’s their mark, European football and it is how far they have come.
“We have already seen that Benfica can come back with ten men in the last game so they will know it is a hard game.
“They will want to win it, they will want to get it done and dusted and qualify for the next round, and then start giving players a rest.
“He would have looked at the fixture list coming up; I think in the next five games, Rangers have four of them away from home and Celtic have five at home.
“I am not saying they are going to drop points, but if they can get through these four games by being able to rest players, while qualifying for Europe, that would be a massive bonus for them.”
Rangers will look to consolidate their lead at the top of the table before they host Celtic at the start of January.
