‘Would be brilliant’: Willem II star makes it personal as he looks to dump Rangers out of Europe
Willem II keeper Robbin Ruiter is hoping he can ‘get one over’ on his former-teammate Jon McLaughlin when his side take on Rangers in the Europa League.
McLaughlin and Ruiter were both goalkeepers at Sunderland in 2018, under current Hibernian boss Jack Ross.
Speaking to the Daily Record, the Willem II keeper revealed that Ross brought McLaughlin to Sunderland following a meeting with Ruiter, in which Ross told the Dutchman that he wouldn’t be getting any game time at the Stadium of Light.
Ruiter said he ‘got on well’ with the Rangers keeper at Sunderland, and while praising the Gers, he added that he would love to take the bragging rights should McLaughlin start ahead of Allan McGregor in their Europa League tie.
“It would be brilliant if I could get one over on Jon next week by winning the game for Willem II.
“But everyone knows Rangers are the favourites for this tie. They’re always challenging Celtic for the title in Scotland. They’re a big team, a big club, with a big history. And they still have really good players.
“We aren’t a bad side and we can play good football. But we know we’ll have to be at our best to get to Rangers’ level. We have to be focused 100 percent on the night and hope Rangers have an off day.”
Rangers and Willem II got their Europa League campaigns off to convincing starts, with both sides winning 5-0, against Lincoln Red Imps and Niedercorn respectively.
Despite their identical starts in Europe, Rangers have to be considered favourites for this game, following their exceptional start to the season.
Of course, the Gers hadn’t conceded this term until last weekend’s 2-2 draw away at Hibernian. Willem II will have to be at their best offensively, if they are to breach the experienced Rangers defence.
The Bookies make Rangers favouites too, at just 3/4 with the home side at 3/1 to spring an upset.
Steven Gerrard will be looking for a reaction following the draw with Hibs, and will be hoping for a relatively straightforward win when the Gers take to the pitch in Holland.
Rangers will be looking to follow up last season’s impressive run to the Europa League’s round of 16, where they were knocked out by Bayer Leverkusen.
And, by the time Rangers take to the pitch, they’ll know if Celtic have got through after being dumped out of the Champions League.
Celtic play Riga FC in an earlier 6pm kick-off.
Rangera fans can watch the game live on Rangers TV – all the details are below.
In other news, this forward is set to exit the Light Blues on loan.