Rangers: Pedro Caixinha happy to face pressure of Pittodrie 'hell'

Pedro Caixinha has targeted a second-place finish in the Scottish Premiership

Pedro Caixinha says he is relishing the challenge of taking his Rangers side to face in-form Aberdeen on Sunday.

The Ibrox outfit are third in the Premiership, 12 points adrift of the second-placed Dons, who have won 10 home matches in a row.

Caixinha accepts Rangers must win to have any hope of finishing second.

"Everybody says we are going to hell and I like those type of scenarios," said Caixinha, who has won one and drawn two matches as Rangers boss.

With passions often running high when the two sides meet, the Portuguese coach is preparing his men for a battle.

"Football is about challenges," he said. "The history of football started with two cities fighting until they take the ball from one specific place and you can score one goal. Those moments were really violent and that's the nature of football.

"We need to be clever, we need to have the right attitude and approach and grow with that old-style environment.

"It's a game that we must win if we want to finish second, definitely. And it's also the first of the last seven fixtures."

Caixinha, who joined the Ibrox side from Qatari club Al Gharafa, reckons the remaining games of the season will tell him plenty about the character and attitude of his charges.

"The players need to see this game and all the games until the end (of the season) as challenges," he said. "That's the way I see life.

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"If I didn't see the chance to be here as Rangers manager as a challenge, maybe I would be in the sun now in Qatar enjoying my wages.

"I came here for the challenge and I want the players to have that feeling as well, because representing Rangers is about being challenged, all day long, day by day, your entire life."

Injury problems, particularly in defence, have hampered Caixinha in his early days at Ibrox.

But the 46-year-old knows he is already under the microscope, and insists that is a situation he is comfortable with.

"If you work for Rangers, you are judged all the time," he said. "It's one more challenge we are going to be judged on.

"We need to act like that and know that and we need to have pride in that. If we are not under those conditions to be judged all the time, we are doing nothing here.

"We are Rangers and we need to assume it, and we need to have strong character and personality."