Danilo is confident Rangers will respond positively to their damaging Boxing Day setback in Paisley when they travel to Motherwell on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Brazilian striker has been key to the Light Blues’ resurgence in recent weeks, but amid a busy schedule, he was rotated out of the team by boss Philippe Clement for the William Hill Premiership game against St Mirren.
However, after a poor first-half performance from the Ibrox men in which Oisin Smyth’s penalty gave the home side a deserved lead to leave the Gers boss raging, Danilo and midfielder Nico Raskin were brought on for the start of the second half to immediate improvement.
Danilo levelled from close range on the hour mark but instead of powering on to complete the comeback, a terrific strike by St Mirren substitute Caolan Boyd-Munce in stoppage time gave Stephen Robinson’s men their first league win over Rangers since 2011 and left the Light Blues 12 points behind leaders Celtic.
Danilo said: “We are used to so many games, especially with this busy period.
“That’s what we want, as many games as possible, and everybody available in the squad. So we just have to be strong and then I think we can bounce back.
“That’s the situation, we’re going to bounce back. I know 100 per cent, it’s just about us.
“It’s a good thing that on Sunday we have another opportunity and we just have to be ready.”
Like his gaffer, Danilo admitted the first-half performance was below the levels required by the Ibrox club, who are seeing another title slip away to the other side of the city.
The former Ajax player, who joined the Govan club in 2023, said: “Obviously, the first half was not to our standard.
“To come into the dressing room 1-0 behind, it’s not what we want, especially not playing at home as well. But we know our quality and we knew that we could bounce back.
“We were dominant after scoring and we were pushing them back, and then we had some chances so I thought we would get the three points.
“But we knew that it would be a fight. We knew that it would be tough so obviously we prepared ourselves, trying to be as good as possible, but sometimes it doesn’t work.
“We tried our best, and they defended in the first half. But we knew our quality and we knew that in the second half we would we have to be better.
“That’s what we did, but we were just unlucky that we conceded the goal in the last minute.”
