The Porto-born forward spent two years in Benfica’s Academy as a youngster but is now preparing to come up against them as Philippe Clement’s men take to the knockout rounds of the competition.
Speaking to RangersTV on arrival at Estádio da Luz, Silva said: “It is special to come back again to my country, it is always special to come here, to speak my language, to see some friends and family but of course the most important thing for me tomorrow is to help Rangers and to do my best.
“We are in a good mood, we have prepared really well this week for this game. I think everyone likes to play these games and we need no motivation. As the coach said to us, we always try to do everything to win, to take the three points. We topped our group in the group stage, so we are in a good way and we want that to continue.
“The Europa League is a special competition, it is a competition everyone wants to play and since I was a kid I dreamed of playing in these competitions. I played for PSV in the Europa League, but it is special to play with Rangers because it is a special club, a historic club and I feel really good here.
“Everyone can see the happiness I have to play for this club, I feel very happy to be here and I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
On what he expects from Benfica in tomorrow’s first-leg, Silva continued: “I think they will come with more power and more fire with the fans and the players because they need to show some reaction about the last two games they have had in their league.
“We expect that, but we are ready because it is two big teams coming up against each other. Benfica and Rangers have that pressure to win every game, so it is going to be good because both teams are going to fight for the win.
“We know it is not one game, we need to manage this because we have two games. We know tomorrow is going to be hard because it is away but we have two games we know the areas we can hurt them, so we are prepared for the game tomorrow.”