Rangers early team news v Braga: Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirms three out of Europa League
Alex Lowry is the latest injury concern for Rangers as Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirms he is one of three unavailable to face Braga.
The manager says the youngster has joined Alfredo Morelos and Ianis Hagi as players missing from the squad for the first leg of the Europa League tie tomorrow (7 April).
Colombian striker Morelos has been ruled out for the rest of the season, in a devastating blow to the club’s hopes of silverware after the title race was effectively ended by defeat to Celtic at the weekend.
Gers boss van Bronckhorst told his press conference this morning ahead of the game, via the club’s Twitter: “We don’t have Hagi, Morelos and Lowry, who is also unavailable.
“We have to create a gameplan that will work for Thursday and that is our focus.
“We will go out every game and try to win with the strongest team possible.”
Crumbling
It has been a devastating few days for the club, with defeat in the Old Firm derby compounded by the Morelos news.
The team have played some of their best football in the knock-out stages of the Europe this year.
But El Bufalo has been a big part of that, so with him missing there are doubts whether they can recreate the Dortmund and Red Star performances.
News that exciting young attacker Lowry is also now missing is just the cherry on top of the situation.
Hope is not over of a successful end to the season, but that now primarily relies on winning the Europa League and qualifying for the Champions League.
The likes of Ryan Kent and James Tavernier are going to have to shoulder even more of the responsibility going forward.
With the manager simply resorting to a promise to “try” to win every game with the “strongest squad possible” it suddenly feels like all the hope that was building a matter of days ago is starting to drain away.
But a win in Portugal would revive the atmosphere at what is a pretty low point for the Light Blues.
In other Rangers news, Kenny Miller has called for major moves in the transfer markets, with starters likely on the way out.