With less than a couple of hours until kick-off at Ibrox, let’s take a look at Royal Antwerp ahead of the big second leg clash.
⚠️ Reminder of the 5.55pm kick-off tonight.
ℹ Wondering what the 1 stands for in Royal Antwerp's badge?
They were the first registered club in Belgian football, hence their nickname, 'The Great Old'. pic.twitter.com/1jFysMNDlw
— Graeme Hanna (@graeme818) February 25, 2021
The Belgian club have been respectful to Rangers in what has been acknowledged as a tough task for them to overcome the deficit from the first leg.
Whilst the Gers are favourites, ‘The Great Old’ will not be taken lightly and Steven Gerrard’s players know there is still a job to be done.
« We are ready for this challenge 🆚 a beautiful club in a beautiful stadium! »#UEL #COYR🔴⚪ #RANANT #RAFC #AntwerpOnTour pic.twitter.com/nf8bNq1e8M
— Royal Antwerp FC (@official_rafc) February 25, 2021
Franky Vercauteren’s team trained at Auchenhowie last night instead of Ibrox.
The Flemish club agreed to Rangers request due to the condition of the pitch.
Boss Vercauteren stated, “I’m a football fan, so I want to protect the field to play the game.”
“We don’t want to demolish the field with respect to the opponent and ourselves.”
“We want to play in the best conditions. That’s why we are here.”
“When you are a professional team, you have to understand the demands of the other team. We would not want another team to kill our field.”
The Antwerp manager was pragmatic in his approach to the 90 minutes ahead:
“We have to accept the reality that we lost and we need to score two goals more.”
“We know the difficulties because of the quality of the opponent.”
“We need to be better than we were in the first game but we also showed in that match that we can score.”
“We have to find a balance between attacking and defending because the more we concede the more we will have to score.”
“We still need to believe and be hopeful, that we have the belief we can still do something”
Personnel
There will be some changes to Antwerp’s selection from last week.
Abdoulaye Seck will not play tonight following his red card late in the game at the Bosuilstadion in the first leg, culminating in the penalty kick winner from Borna Barisic.
The ‘box-office’ Didier Lamkel Ze is back in contention following his suspension last week.
A striker who won’t line-up at Ibrox is Dieumerci Mbokani, the veteran DR Congo striker did not travel to Glasgow, as confirmed earlier this week, in what is a blow to the away side.
It was hoped he would be in the group to face Rangers but did not come through the game at the weekend against Sint-Truiden.
In the same report, it was stated that goalkeeper Alireze Beiranvand is fit for selection and Rangers fans will welcome that news following his erratic performance last week.
If he does not play, third-choice keeper De Wolf will come in to the reckoning.