Philippe Clement will be hoping that Rangers can bounce back straight away after the dismal defeat to Kilmarnock with a morale boosting win over FCSB.
The Romanian cracks are flying high in the Europa League with two wins from two with Ibrox unlikely to provide the usual hostile atmosphere.
The manager has a squad that still needs a few players back from injury, however, Clement will be helped if he can get some inside intelligence on FCSB.
Gigi Becali names FCSB team for Europa League tie with Rangers
Incredibly, FCSB’s owner, Gigi Becali, has done exactly this by naming the visitor’s team for the third round of Europa League league phase games, via Digisport.
“The centre backs will be (Joyskim) Dawa with (Syabonga) Ngezana. Ngezana said he feels a bit tired now, he probably wants to play there (no – with Rangers). Dawa said it was no problem for him. They will be central defenders.
“On the left and right, let’s see if (Risto) Radunovic can play with (Valentin) Crețu. We have Baba (Alhassan), (Malcom) Edjouma in the middle. On (David) Miculescu’s left, you have (Daniel) Popa as an attacker, on the right, (Marius) Ștefănescu, isn’t Popa a footballer or what? (no – later found out that Bîrligea is suspended with Rapid).
“There’s Luis Phelipe, I liked him today. Aren’t they players too? Otherwise we demoralize them. If you don’t let them play even when you play every 3 days, they want to leave after.”
Who are the key players missing for FCSB?
Key players Darius Olaru and Mihai Popescu, along with Adrian Șut, Alexandru Băluță and Tavi Popescu will all be missing from the starting XI according to the eccentric Romanian.
They started in the 2-0 Super Lig win over Dinamo Bucaresti at the weekend and are the first-choice centre-half, midfield three and centre-forward.
If this is the team that FCSB go with, it will be weakened, there is no getting away from that, but it is a big if.
Becali has a major influence at FCSB, Ilias Charalampous is the manager, but what the owner wants, he usually gets.
It would give Rangers a helping hand, however, should they lose, the pressure on Clement would only be ramped up even further.
