Rangers take on Benfica tonight in the Estadio da Luz hoping for a similar, or better, result to our last visit to Lisbon.
Gers boss Philippe Clement has admitted that he will be sending his squad out to attack and that being away from Ibrox isn’t an excuse to shut-up shop.
The issue Rangers have though, is that most of our forward players are missing for the trip to take on Benfica, this is who Clement has gone with.
Rangers v Benfica – Team news confirmed
Jack Butland has been earning all the plaudits this week, an international recall could be on the cards and this is the type of game that Gareth Southgate will be watching.
The chances are that he will be significantly busier than he has been in recent weeks.
His display in Prague is the level that he will need to be at tonight.
Clement spoke this week about potentially having to change formation because of injuries and a shortage of wingers, ironically, the only time we have done this was against Sparta Prague.
Ridvan Yilmaz has estabilshed himself as first choice at left-back and his extra pace could be pivotal at both ends of the park.
Leon Balogun might have been in with a shout of starting but there wasn’t space to squeeze him into the Europa League squad, it would be a surprise if he doesn’t come in at the weekend for John Souttar, who looks like he could do with a breather.
The biggest question for Clement in midfield was whether or not to bring Tom Lawrence back in at number 10 and he has decided that the Welshman’s guile will be needed.
In terms of forward options, Scott Wright, Cyriel Dessers and Fabio Silva are the only three who are 100% fit but Ross McCausland has trained since leaving Ibrox on crutches at the weekend.
This is who Clement has gone with in what will be a tough test for Rangers:
No change of shape as had been suggested but a very technical line up from the gaffer.
The big Belgian will want to win and set his team up to have a go but a good performance should see us get the type of result needed to keep the tie alive.
And, anything, as we’ve seen before, can happen at Ibrox on a Thursday night.
