Rangers take on Benfica tonight in the Estadiu da Luz in the third group game of the Europa League looking to add to their impressive two wins so far.
The double header against the Portuguese giants was always going to be the toughest fixtures but given the form of Steven Gerrard’s men and the performance against Standard Liege where they broke a six-year old record, they certainly have nothing to fear.
Bizarrely, in something akin to what the SPFL would do, Benfica had a fixture on Monday evening when they lost 3-0 to Boavista, who were second bottom of the Portuguese Primeira Liga at the start of the night, it was their first defeat of the season and are now a point behind Sporting Lisbon at the top of the league.
Their defence looked far from solid and if Rangers are set up correctly, they could get some joy out of them, at the heart of their back line is former Premier League campaigners Jan Vertonghen and Nicolas Otamendi, full of experience but not exactly known for their pace or physical resilience – Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos will cause them problems, but in entirely different ways.
Match prediction
Win
Draw
Loss
Any sort of positive result would go a long way in seeing the Light Blues progress to the knockout stages once again, with a packed fixture list coming up after the international break, if it could be secured with games still to play, it would make the task of balancing the squad for domestic fixtures an awful lot easier.
The Lech Poznan game was far from a “normal” European tie and this fixture should see a return to the more structured continental shape that has been so well rehearsed on the training ground at Auchenhowie – cometh the hour, cometh the man, don’t be surprised if El Bufalo shines on the biggest stage once again.