Confirmed Rangers starting XI v Malmo
Rangers have confirmed Steven Gerrard has made two changes to his starting XI ahead of tonight’s crucial Champions League clash against Malmo at Ibrox.
The Light Blues’ Twitter account announced prior to kick-off in the second leg of the third qualifying round fixture that Filip Helander and John Lundstram have been dropped on Tuesday night, with Leon Balogun and Scott Arfield taking their places.
Fashion Sakala sat out on the weekend but he returns to take his place on the bench, as does Ianis Hagi.
Time for heroes
Rangers have not made it into the Champions League group stage since the 2010/11 campaign when Manchester United, Valencia and Bursaspor all visited Ibrox.
There were five years in the European wilderness between 2012-17 before we were humbled upon our return when we were dumped out of the Europa League qualifying rounds by Luxembourg outfit Progres Niederkorn.
The last couple of campaigns in the Europa League have brought more success with consecutive round of 16 appearances, and the Gers have beaten the likes of Porto, Feyenoord and Galatasaray during that period.
But now comes the big test – one game to make it back into the promised land of Europe’s elite-level competition.
With away goals now scrapped, our job is clear – win by at least two clear goals and we will advance to the group stage where we could face European heavyweights like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
If we have any grand designs on playing clubs like those, we will need to significantly improve our performance from last week’s defeat in Sweden, as well as Saturday’s dismal defeat to Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.
These players made themselves heroes last season, now we need them to reestablish their status, this time in the Champions League.
In other Rangers news, a high-ranking official has made a request to their Premiership rivals as the seven-figure row takes a new twist.