Rangers must progress to next UCL qualifier round to avoid giving Celtic financial edge – Charlie Nicholas
Charlie Nicholas believes that Rangers must overcome the two-goal deficit against Union Saint-Gilloise in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers or they will face a “problematic” situation in regards to rivals Celtic.
The Gers suffered a two-goal thrashing in the first leg in Belgium last week and now face an uphill task in the second leg which is to be played at Ibrox on Tuesday.
Nicholas, in a column for Scottish Daily Express, stated that a failure to overturn the deficit tonight will hand Rangers’ local rivals Celtic an advantage financially.
“The problem Rangers have is that Celtic go straight into the Champions League group stages, probably thanks a lot to their Europa League final run last season,” wrote.
“The concern for Rangers is that Celtic will be there and they won’t. That would allow Celtic to flex their financial muscle again and the situation becomes problematic for the blue side of Glasgow. That is the scary thing for Rangers.”
Big night ahead
The first leg of the tie was like a bad dream where hardly anything went right, from having players who performed poorly to some key players missing.
While many would still point out that performance was due to the absence of players like Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent, it is hard to imagine how they would’ve improved that performance.
Coming into Tuesday’s fixture, Rangers will feel the heat, especially with what Nicholas points out as a failure tonight would actually strengthen their local league rivals, something which would be nothing short of catastrophic for the club.
Therefore, manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst will have a big task at hand to ensure that his players will turn up tonight and be able to turn the deficit around and progress to the next round.
To make things a little better for Rangers fans, they can expect to see the likes of Kent and Morelos in action as both have been declared fit for the contest.
In other Rangers news, one BBC pundit could not emphasise enough how important developments at the weekend for one player were in relation to the European game.