The teams are now out in this wonderful quarry of a stadium – which, of course, has a cliff behind the goal! Nearly time to begin …
Wednesday night Europa is a bit discombobulating, isn’t it? To be clear: the rest of the ties are tomorrow.
Peter Van loves the Europa League. And don’t we all!
“Unlike the CL, where the same teams play each other again and again, just look at how bonkers the round of 32 fixture list is: European titans (Porto, Ajax, Inter), mixed with clubs from Cyprus (APOEL), Sweden (Malmo) or Austria (had to look this one up – LASK).
“It’s also the only conceivable route to continent-wide glory for clubs like Rangers or Celtic (and, I suppose, Braga), considering the massive financial disparity brought on by the Champions League. And the football can be quite good too!”
So Morelos is replaced by Florian Kamberi, the winter signing who scored his first Rangers goal against St Johnstone on Sunday. Will he fire them into the last 16?
Teams
Braga: Magalhaes, Viana, Carmo, Silva, Esgaio, Trincao, Fransergio, Palhinha, Sequeira, R Horta, Paulinho. Subs: Tormena, Ruiz, Sa, A Horta, Novais, Fonte, Galeno.
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Edmundson, Barisic, Arfield, Davis, Jack, Hagi, Kamberi, Kent. Subs: Ojo, Foderingham, Halliday, Aribo, Kamara, Katic, Stewart.
Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden).
Hello
This could be a historic night for modern-era Rangers. I mean, baby steps and all that, but if they can preserve or – perish the thought – see out their 3-2 advantage from the first leg they’ll bring up their best European run since 2010-11. Are they on their way back to continental eminence? Perhaps not quite, but it’d suggest they have a pulse.
That first leg at Ibrox was a belter. After an hour the tie seemed over. By full-time Rangers had scored three times to put themselves in the driving seat, sparking pandemonium and recalling some famous nights and the old venue. At the driving seat was Ianis Hagi – yes, his dad *is* who you think he is – with two goals, even if one was heavily deflected. The playmaker is a delightful operator to watch and, with him pulling the strings, Stevie G’s boys have a chance of completing the job in Portugal.
They’ll need to do it without their star striker Alfredo Morelos, though, as he’s suspended. They’ll also want to ignore the fact that their away record in Europe is distinctly non-clever: they have not won any of their last 15 games on the road, qualifiers excluded, although their last such triumph did come in Portugal – against Sporting in 2007-08.
Fortunately they only need to draw tonight! Can they do it? Don’t go away – we are about to find out!
Kick-off: 5pm GMT.
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