Rangers return to European action on Thursday night as they face a tough trip to Istanbul to take on Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.
Rangers avoided the Europa League playoff round, as they snuck into the top eight of the league phase courtesy of a 2-1 victory at home to USG on MD8, coupled with other results going their way.
Europe has been a welcome distraction for The Teddy Bears, with most of their best performances this season coming in Europe’s secondary competition.
Domestically, Barry Ferguson’s side are out of both cup competitions and fell 16 points behind Premiership leaders Celtic at the weekend following their terrible 1-2 loss at home to Motherwell on an afternoon where one of my two goalscorer selections landed.
Fenerbahce, on the other hand, did have to navigate themselves through the Europa League playoff round and did so by defeating Belgian giants Anderlecht 5-2 on aggregate.
Like their visitors, Jose Mourinho’s side currently occupy second spot in their domestic league table, but they managed to reduce the gap to leaders Galatasaray to four points at the weekend following a comfortable 3-0 home win over Antalyaspor.
How the bookies view it: Jose’s hosts favourites
BoyleSports make Fenerbahce 11/20 favourites to take a first leg lead to Ibrox next week.
The same firm makes Rangers 15/4 underdogs to leave Istanbul with a first leg lead, whilst the draw is 3/1.
Head to head: Bad memories for Gers
These two sides last met in the 2001/02 season, where Fenerbahce defeated Rangers 2-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
Players to watch: No stopping En-Nesyri
Moroccan striker Youssef En-Nesyri is Fenerbahce’s leading scorer this season with 25 goals in all competitions, with the Ex-Sevilla man netting in each of his last three European appearances.
Cyriel Dessers has scored three goals in his last two appearances for Rangers and scored a stunning goal against Manchester United in their previous away match in Europe.
Probable line-ups
Jose Mourinho will be without suspended pair Fred and Osayi-Samuel, whilst the likes of Diego Carlos, Rodrigo Becau, and Ismail Yuksek are also out injured.
Rangers will once ago be without defender Neraysho Kasanwirjo.
Fenerbahce: Egribayat, Muldur, Skriniar, Soyuncu, Aydin, Amrabat, Szymanski, Kostic, Tadic, En-Nesryi, Dzeko
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Balogun, Propper, Jefte, Raskin, Diomande, Hagi, Cerny, Igamane, Dessers
Anything else catch the eye?
As he does in most places he goes, Jose Mourinho has made his home a fortress, with The Yellow Canaries having W14-D3-L2 of their league and European matches in front of their supporters this season.
Fenerbahce have scored 2+ goals in 13/14 (93%) of those victories at home this campaign – including a 3-0 success over Anderlecht in the playoff round – and I’m backing them to do the same against a Rangers side who have been a mess defensively in recent weeks.
Both Teams to Score has banked in each of Rangers’s last nine away matches in all competitions – as well as in six of their past seven European trips – and are certainly capable of getting on the scoresheet against a Fenerbahce defence that’s kept just two clean sheets across their 14 European encounters this season.
This UEFA Europa League match between Fenerbahce and Rangers will be played on and kick off at 17:45. Check below for our tipsters best Fenerbahce vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
Istanbul isn’t the capital of Turkey.
It’s not Turkey either.
It’s Türkiye ;-)