Sam Stone

Wed 14 September 2022 16:16, UK

Gabby Agbonlahor has backed Rangers to beat Serie A leaders Napoli 2-1 in their second Champions League group stage fixture this evening.

The Gers head into the fixture off the back of a 4-0 defeat to Ajax on matchday one whereas the Italian side dismantled Liverpool 4-1 in Naples.

Despite the disparity in form, talkSPORT pundit Agbonlahor believes Rangers will kickstart their Champions League campaign against the Serie A leaders.

Talking in a talkSPORT EDGE clip (14 September), he said: “The fans will demand a result and Napoli won’t be used to the atmosphere at Ibrox so I am going to go Rangers 2-1.”

Bold

The atmosphere argument is a tough one to understand considering that Napoli play at one of the cauldrons of European football in the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

However, we have seen on many occasions some of Europe’s more experienced sides travel to Ibrox and come unstuck with Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig just two examples from their Europa League campaign in the 2021/22 season.

No away fans are permitted to attend the fixture in Glasgow and that could have an impact on proceedings, but Rangers are coming up against one of the most in-form teams in the whole of Europe at the moment.

Out of all of their contests at Ibrox on the European stage, this will, without a doubt be their toughest to date, with Napoli looking in imperious form thus far in the 2022/23 season.

Considering Rangers’ poor form heading into the fixture, Napoli will be favourites, but there is something about European nights at Ibrox that can cause anything to happen.

If Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side do pull off an unlikely victory it will be one of his biggest achievements as Rangers boss.

In other Rangers news, the BBC never seem to learn their lessons as they persist with their embarrassing anti-Rangers agenda.