CHRISTIAN DAILLY helped Rangers into the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup then admitted: "I've never seen such a squad of winners."

The Scotland man, who only arrived at Ibrox in January, was again superb in last night's 2-0 win over Sporting Lisbon that took Walter Smith's side into a last-four clash against Italians Fiorentina.

The only downside to reaching their first Euro semi in 36 years - apart from more fixture chaos - were the yellow cards which put Barry Ferguson and Kevin Thomson out of the first leg against the Florence side at Ibrox on April 24.

With a possible quadruple still up for grabs, Dailly says he's been blown away by the Gers spirit.

He revealed: "It sounds amazing to be in the semis. We have worked so hard in the last few weeks, and every single player in that dressing room is a winner. I haven't really seen spirit and determination like it.

"It doesn't matter how many games we have, everyone just gets up for it and gets out there.

"It's a great achievement for the club, and we'll get round to dealing with Fiorentina when it comes around."

Dailly also hit back at the critics who say that Rangers win ugly.

He reflected: "It was really enjoyable to see the team playing such quality football. We get a fair bit of stick and people say we are not good to watch, but you have to win games in different ways.

"The pitch made it easy to knock the ball around. We trained on it the night before and all the boys said how good it was and we were looking forward to getting back onto it.

"People overlook the fact we have a lot of good players. We are adaptable, we dig in and we are learning."

Rangers now face a fixture nightmare with the SPL still to schedule outstanding games against St Mirren and Motherwell, with no free midweeks - unless they get knocked out in the semis, which will mean no final trip to Manchester on May 14.

Dailly said: "It could be a problem, but we know we are having a good season with so many games. There isn't a lot of training being done, we are just recovering and trying to eat and rest properly.

"We have been into a routine for a while now, and I don't think you saw any tiredness."

Rangers have not asked for an extension, and won't. They could still face the prospect of four games in eight days, with Celtic already against the idea of extending the season in their rivals' favour.

Smith had a veiled pop at Parkhead chief executive Peter Lawwell, who spoke of the integrity of the league being retained by the season finishing on time on May 18.

Smith said: "We have to face the fixtures if that's the situation we find ourselves in.We have a semi to play and I'm delighted to be in it.

"In the quotes we've seen so far it would be against sporting integrity to ask for an extension, and no one at Rangers wants to go against sporting integrity."