Thursday evening, at 20:00, Glasgow Rangers receives Spartak Moscow’s third round of the UEFA Europa League Group G. The hosts are Murphy and Wallace, while Spartak comes with an almost complete batch, with Gigot and Selikhov tortured by medical problems. Both coaches will be able to match the most competitive starting bets possible.
Rangers starts his favorite on Ibrox, where fans will once again create a holiday atmosphere. The Scots are in full swing for the qualification, with 4 points in two rounds (5-3 golaver), while the Russians are the last in the group, with a single point in two games (3-5 round). It is an open group that offers the chances of qualification to all teams (Villarreal and Rapid Vienna). The game has a huge stake for the hosts, who can already qualify after three games.
We expect to see a game with few goals, because Spartak will not play very easily and is not even the most creative team in the competition. The Russians will rely on solid and crowded defense, and a move away would be a good result for Muscovites. On the other side, Steven Gerrard’s band has a good ball movement but showed defensive weaknesses in front of modest rivals in Scotland. Surely Spartak knows he can score away and will try to speculate any kind of space or error of the opponent.
Spartak Moscow sacrificed the final round of the championship for preparing the UEL match
Rangers comes after 4 wins in the last 5 official matches: 4-0 with Ayr (Scottish Cup), 0-1 with Livingston (in the championship), 3-1 with Rapid Vienna (Europa League), 3-1 with Hearts and 4- 1 at Hamilton. Of course, in the first league the blue-blues met modest bands, but here as well against these clubs Rangers received the goal. Spatak has scored 8 goals in the last three games (3-3 with Villarreal, 3-2 at Yenisey, 2-3 with Arsenal Tula) and the coach of the guests pointed out that a solid defensive is absolutely essential on Thursday. In fact, preparing for the Rangers duel cost him vital points in the red-white championship, defeated at home by Arsenal Tula.
Even if statistics show us many goals in the games played by the two bands, the decisive character of the game urges us to take precautions.
PREDICTION: Rangers to win @ 2.20
