Ibrox View: Rangers must learn from 2016 Celtic mishap v Lincoln Red Imps
Rangers will face Lincoln Red Imps in the second qualifying round of the Europa League this season.
The draw was conducted on Monday, and while many will see that as a favourable clash, the Gers must still be wary of the Gibraltar champions.
And nobody knows that better than our bitter rivals Celtic.
The Hoops were unexpectedly beaten 1-0 in Brendan Rodgers’ first competitive game in charge of the club back in 2016 – a match that is still referred to as the “Shock of Gibraltar” and has its very own Wikipedia page.
So how do Steven Gerrard’s men ensure that they don’t suffer the same humiliation when they travel to face the Imps on September 17th?
Well, there are certain lessons to be learnt from the Bhoys’ capitulation.
For one thing, Lincoln won’t be afraid of letting us have possession.
When they faced Celtic they managed just 27.96% possession.
In fact, at no point did they even reach 35% possession over the course of the 90 minutes.
And yet, despite that, their xG of 0.68 was only 0.31 lower than Celtic’s.
That means that over a 90 minute match in which they barely touched the ball, they still managed to limit the Hoops to an xG of less than one.
If we look at Celtic’s shot map from that game, we can see that they did have a few decent chances in and around the danger area, but they were also largely limited to a number of speculative efforts from the edge of the box.
What does this tell us?
Well, it shows that Lincoln know how to frustrate a side, and it also proves that Rangers will have to be sharp if they are to take advantage of the few clear cut chances they may be afforded.
That will be something that Steven Gerrard is acutely aware of, especially after his side had just three shots on target from an attempted 20 in their stalemate with Livingston recently.
Don’t get us wrong, this should still be an absolute cakewalk for the Gers.
But if Celtic’s costs mishap has taught us anything, it’s that Rangers must go into this game all guns blazing to avoid an embarrassing continental upset.
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