RANGERS face a trip to Portugal to face Benfica in the Round of 16 first leg of the Europa League with both sides reeling from shock defeats at the weekend.
Philippe Clement's men turned in their worst performance under his tenure as they crashed to a stunning defeat at Ibrox to a Motherwell side who were 18/1 with the bookies.
However, disaster was averted when Celtic lost at Hearts a day later and they remain two points clear at the top of the Premiership.
But that loss was nothing compared to the pummelling by Porto received by Benfica as they crashed to a 5-0 defeat.
It was only their second league defeat of the season and their first since the opening day, but it was their second loss in a row after crashing to a loss at bitter rivals Sporting Lisbon in a Portuguese Cup semi-final first leg.
In Europe, Benfica won just one of their Champions League group stages matches and were very fortunate to get through against Toulouse in the play-off round of the Europa League.
Rangers got through a tricky Europa League group stages section by way of a fantastic win at Real Betis on the last game of the group.
How the bookies view it.
Benfica are solid odds-on shots across the board here and can be backed at 3/5 with 10bet and are as low as 1/2 elsewhere.
Rangers will have their backers at 19/4 with bet365 and the draw is 16/5 with William Hill's.
Recent head to heads
The sides met in the same competition four years ago in the group stages and there were a couple of entertaining draws – 2-2 in Glasgow and 3-3 in Lisbon.
Players to watch
Rafa Silva has scored ten goals in his last 15 games since December and the in-form Portuguese international is 21/10 to score anytime with bet365.
Cyriel Dessers scored an important goal for Rangers in Europe in Spain when they beat Real Betis 3-2 – one of the 16 goals he's netted so far this season. The Nigerian international is 15/4 with bet365 to score in Portugal.
Anything else catch the eye?
Benfica look far too short to beat a Rangers team who had been performing very well up until a surprise stutter and who usually impress away from home in Europe.
And the 7/5 with UniBet for the double chance of a draw or a win for the visitors looks a decent shout here.
Benfica didn't exactly tear up trees in their home European games and getting thumped 5-0 by your rivals which followed up a derby defeat must have knocked their confidence.
You need to go back to October for the last time Rangers didn;t score, so the 4/5 with William Hill's looks as solid as you can get.
Rangers usually rack up the corners too, so for them to get over 3.5 at bet365 looks a safe bet, albeit at odds-on at 4/6.
This UEFA Europa League match between Benfica and Rangers will be played on Mar 7, 2024 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Benfica vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
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