Slavia Prague manager Jindřich Tripišovský has raved about Rangers and Ibrox ahead of the Europa League Last 16 tie between the clubs [SK Slavia Prague EN Twitter].
Slavia come into Thursday’s first leg in outstanding form.
They are unbeaten and way out on their own at the top of the Czech First League table, while they progressed in the Czech Cup last week after scoring ten goals against a lower-league side.
Tripišovský knows his players face a big challenge against newly-crowned Champions of Scotland, Rangers, though, with the Gers still unbeaten 11 matches into their 2020/21 European campaign.
“Rangers score a lot of goals, in Europe they netted three against Benfica, two in Poznan, then the two legs against Antwerp… It’s a well-balanced team, excellent in front and very hard-working in defence,” he said on Wednesday [SK Slavia Prague EN Twitter].
The first leg will take place at the Sinobo Stadium in the Czech capital before the two sides lock horns again at Ibrox in a week’s time and Tripišovský is already looking forward to the trip to the iconic venue.
“I wanted to be drawn against a Scottish club as we haven’t played them yet,” he continued. “One of the reasons, unfortunately, was the atmosphere in their stadiums.”
“I am looking forward to Ibrox. For me, it is another magical place of European football.”
The second leg will take place behind closed doors due to the current restrictions in place in Glasgow but the lack of matchday atmosphere hasn’t negatively impacted Rangers this season.
Steven Gerrard’s side have a 100% record at Ibrox in the Premiership and have won four of their five European matches there this season, so if they can secure a positive result in Prague, they’ll fancy their chances of progressing to the quarter-finals.
Ahead of the first leg, a key player has been spotted back in training but two others have been ruled out.
