FC Rangers hired Steven Gerrard for two reasons – becoming Scottish champions again and playing in Europe again. The Liverpool legend, who’s unbeaten in nine outings this season, is close to fulfilling one of those promises, as the Glasgow outfit is one step away from earning a place in the Europa League group stage. Their last opponent is Russia’s FC Ufa. They visit Glasgow tonight with hopes of securing an active result to take back home to Bashkiria.
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Rangers – Ufa Start Time
Date: Thursday, August 23
Time: 20:45 CET/GMT+2
Location: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, Scotland
Rangers – Ufa Preview
Rangers entered the Europa League qualification process in the first round and eliminated three Balkan teams to get here: Shkupi, Osijek and Maribor. They’ll be missing a few players, but Gerrard is brimming with confidence nonetheless.
“We are looking for a performance full of aggression and intensity,”
“We have to be positive and on the front. That’s when we are at our best.”
FC Ufa was established in 2009 and are playing their fifth season in the Russian Premier League. They’re currently managed by Sergei Tomasov, who replaced Sergei Semak, the current coach of Zenit St. Petersburg. Semak led Ufa to sixth place in the domestic league and the team qualified for Europe for the first time in history by virtue of Russian Cup winners Tosno’s bankruptcy.
Tomarov believes his players are ready to take on Rangers.
“To my mind Rangers now are quite a strong team with some good players. We have studied them quite well, we know their strong and weak sides and that’s why we’re looking at this game very seriously.”
In the previous round, Ufa eliminated Niedercorn, the team that knocked out the Rangers last season.
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FC Rangers Injury Issues
Borna Barisic is ineligible, Lassana Coulibaly, Jordan Rossiter, Graham Dorrans and Lee Wallace are all out, while Jamie Murphy blew up his knee on the artificial turf at Kilmarnock over the weekend and is out for the season. Rangers acted quickly by bringing back forward Kyle Lafferty from Hearts. He might not be inserted into the starting lineup immediately, but he will be available.
Player to watch: Alfredo Morelos
The 22-year-old Colombian striker is the Rangers’ main weapon. He just scored a hat-trick in the team’s 3-1 Scottish Cup win over Kilmarnock and is always around the opposition net. European clubs are already hot on his trail.
Rangers – Ufa Bet365 Betting Odds
Alfredo Morelos to score 2.25 (5/4)