Dortmund is last chance for Rangers to smash glass ceiling before break up – Jordan Campbell
Borussia Dortmund represent the last chance for Rangers to make a European statement before the team is picked apart, says The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell.
After finally dislodging Celtic as Scottish champions last season, beating the Bundesliga side could be the final opportunity for this side to prove themselves before the title winning squad reaches the end of its life.
Gers travel to the Signal Iduna Park tonight looking to set up what could be a famous European night at Ibrox in the second leg.
Writing in The Athletic, Campbell says: “If every team has a cycle, then it has a tipping point too. “
“This squad had theirs domestically last season and came up trumps in what was their third attempt at dislodging Celtic, but now they face the question of whether they can defy the perception that they have reached their ceiling in Europe.
The journalist believes it is a matter of when not if for the players that have brought success start to move on: “Dortmund are the highest ranked team they have faced, and beating a truly top-tier side for the first would be smashing the glass ceiling with what may be the last punch they have left before the team is inevitably broken up in the summer.”
Making memories
Considering what the club went through after liquidation in 2012 the team that finally reached the top again under Steven Gerrard will live long in the memory of Gers fans.
But they haven’t made an impact on the continent in the same way that some of their predecessors did.
It has been a lean period of European success for Scottish football on the whole as Celtic have also failed to register big results for some time.
The German giants could be the ideal candidate to change that as they have the status and standing to suggest they should be clear favourites, but the propensity to ship a lot of goals on off-nights that gives the Light Blues a strong chance.
With Erling Braut Haaland expected to miss the first leg, the injury problems in Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s defence should be spared the greatest of examinations.
The Ibrox men will have to be at their attacking best to be in with a chance of shocking Dortmund into conceding a few, but with Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent in particular in such hot form over the last couple of games it is not fanciful to imagine a good away result.
The Colombian striker, Joe Aribo and Glen Kamara have been subject to sustained transfer speculation, while Connor Goldson is likely to leave when his contract expires, and Allan McGregor could retire at the age of 40.
In other Rangers news, former favourite of both sides Stefan Klos has given the Light Blues no chance in the tie.