FILIP HELANDER is confident Rangers will take plenty of positives from their Europa League campaign after coming up short against Bayer Leverkusen.

Steven Gerrard’s side exited the competition at the last 16 stage on Thursday night as they went down 1-0 in Germany to lose the tie 4-1 on aggregate.

The Bundesliga giants proved too good over the two legs but the remarkable European run was a memorable one for Helander as the Swede made his return to action in the BayArena.

“I think we have learned a lot,” he told RangerTV. “We have played good opponents the whole way and they are fun games to play.

“I think we have performed well as well. We managed to win against a lot of good teams like Porto, Braga, Feyenoord.

“This task was too tough for us this time but we have enjoyed it when we look back at it.

“It is always disappointing [to go out]. We wanted to give it a real try and the performance wasn’t good enough to beat a team like this.

“But, you know, when we look back at we have done, as I said, in general very good.

“It is getting better all the time in training and obviously to get 90 minutes [on Thursday] was very good for me personally. I hope I can be ready to contribute to the team.”