Maccabi Haifa will be giving Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst food for thought after the Israeli champions dumped Italian giants Juventus in the Champions League.
Ibrox manager Gio spoke candidly about the discrepancy in finance between the Gers and the rest of a challenging Group A after the club was dumped 4-0 by Ajax in Amsterdam.
Since then Rangers have failed to score a single goal in the Champions League this season and have yet to pick up a point either as defeats to Napoli and Liverpool have followed.
Worse than that, the Rangers manager claimed fundamentally that asking the Ibrox side to compete with these sides was “too much to ask” adding that you need “hundreds of millions”.
But Maccabi Haifa have shown that things don’t always have to be that way with a turn up for the books against the mighty Juventus which will last long in the memory for their supporters.
Maccabi Haifa ditch Juventus to give Rangers food for thought
Israeli attacking midfielder Omer Atzili netted a double to down Juventus in a historic result which leaves Maccabi Haifa with faint Last 16 hopes but a proper chance at Europa League qualification.
The result has the pressure building on Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri, with the Italians also toiling in 8th place in Serie A after spending a reported £95m in the summer [Transfermarkt].
This is after spending around a combined £80m on Dusan Vlahovic and Denis Zakaria in January this year.
In contrast, Maccabi Haifa reportedly spent a touch over £2m this summer, only spending money to sign Frantzdy Pierrot and Abdoulaye Seck this summer [Transfermarkt].
Whilst van Bronckhorst’s words remain relevant, it shows that big money investment isn’t always needed to compete and Maccabi Haifa managed to catch Juventus on an off night with the pressure mounting on their manager.
Sound familiar? Perhaps the power of the Rangers crowd can make a difference with Liverpool stuttering domestically and here is how we predict the team to line up.
