On Thursday afternoon, Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar host Scottish giants Rangers in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.
The home side heads into this clash in decent form, although they have played very little over the last few months due to the global pandemic. Their most recent outings have both been in the Europa League, where William’s team has beaten Pristina 3-0 and UT Petange 2-0 in the last round.
🇬🇮 Gers in Gibraltar pic.twitter.com/YIswpunRTt— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) September 16, 2020
🇬🇮 Gers in Gibraltar pic.twitter.com/YIswpunRTt
The wins ended a terrible record for the home team in Europe’s secondary competition, as they had failed to win in all six their previous games in the Europa League, having suffered four defeats.
The two recent European wins both came on home soil, which means that Lincoln Red Imps have now lost just once at the Victoria Stadium in five Europa League matches. The wins also saw the home team keep their first clean sheets on home soil in the competition.
Rangers have made a highly promising start to their domestic campaign and are currently six points clear at the top of the SPL. One key factor to their good start to the new campaign has been defensive solidity, as they have kept clean sheets in all seven of their league matches this season.
Steven Gerrard’s team has yet to feature in the Europa League this season, with their previous appearance coming in a 4-1 aggregate defeat by Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16 of the competition.
Before the defeats home and away against Peter Bosz’s team, the visitors had been six games unbeaten in the Europa League.
Rangers have found picking up wins on their travels difficult of late in the Europa League, as they have won just one of their last six away games in the competition.
Forebet predicts that Rangers will record a narrow win at the Victoria Stadium to progress to the third qualifying round of the Europa League.