Rangers will ‘relish’ Liverpool test with Ryan Kent out to impress
Rangers learned of the three opponents they will face in this season’s Champions League draw on Thursday and it will be a tough campaign.
Alongside the reigning Scottish Cup champions and Europa League runners-up in group A will be Napoli, Ajax and Liverpool with the latter side particularly interesting.
The Reds have never met the Light Blues in a competitive game before with their last game against Scottish opposition coming in 1981 against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen.
In reaction to the draw, Chris Sutton wrote in his Daily Mail column: “Get ready for the Battle of Britain! Scottish clubs have taken a few scalps over the years and Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side have shown, even in this year’s qualifiers, that they’re a good side.
“They won’t fear facing Liverpool. They’ll relish it and Ryan Kent will want to show his boyhood club the progress he’s made.
“Rangers will also face Calvin Bassey of Ajax – after the defender left them for the Dutch side in the summer.”
Reunions
Giovanni van Bronckhorst may not have been expecting to come up against Bassey so soon after selling him for a club-record fee to the current champions of the Netherlands.
The Nigerian international is a formidable opponent but Rangers will know where his weaknesses are and look to exploit them at every opportunity both home and away.
Kent is always out to prove a point by the way he plays but that extra spice of taking on his boyhood club which sold him to Ibrox in 2019 for £6.5million might give him another five per cent of performance.
On paper, Rangers are the weakest of the four teams in the group with Napoli having kept up with the Serie A title race for most of last season but the game is never played on paper.
Once the Glasgow crowd is factored into the equation, van Bronckhorst’s side could suddenly be among the favourites to progress to the knockout stages.
In other Rangers news, the World’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman, issued a rallying cry upon the release of the draw that will inspire many Gers fans.