The Europa League group stages began on Thursday night and Rangers kicked off with a brilliant result in Spain.

Steven Gerrard's side came from behind on two occasions to secure a 2-2 draw away at Villarreal.

Carlos Bacca fired Villarreal in front within 43 minutes as Gers were completely outplayed in the first half.

Second half goals from Scott Arfield and Kyle Lafferty secured an unlikely point against the group favourites.

Gerrard has enjoyed an excellent start to his management career and it's evident that he knows exactly how to motivate his players.

Rangers winger Daniel Candeias revealed what Gerrard said in the dressing room at half-time after a disappointing first half display.

“When we finished the first half, the gaffer said in the dressing room to believe in ourselves and get a great result.

“I know we didn’t win, but a draw is a good result for us.”

The legendary former Liverpool midfielder also described what happened in his half-time team talk.

“We obviously got off to the worst possible start, going a goal down inside the first minute," said Gerrard, as per the Evening Express.

“The message at half-time was to show more belief and have more courage in our play by making passes."

The players paid attention - and Rangers came close to taking all three points.

Gerrard added: “I was concerned at half-time that we were going to have regrets after the game.

"When we won the ball back we never kept it well enough. We never had enough belief when we were getting into really good areas.

“We didn’t really believe we could cause the opposition problems. But from half-time we went and did it and we could have scored a few more goals."

Rangers host Rapid Vienna - who beat Spartak Moscow 2-0 - in their next Europa League outing.

Their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages were massively boosted by their second-half performance in Spain.

Is Gerrard destined for a remarkable managerial career too? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.