Rangers’ Europa League opponents Braga continued their domestic renaissance under new coach Ruben Amorim with a 2-1 win away to FC Porto in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
Rangers took four points off of Porto in their Europa League group and the result shows just how strong an opponent the Ibrox side will be facing next month.
Porto missed two penalties and Braga’s first goal was awarded by VAR in somewhat dubious circumstances with a player offside in the six-yard box.
The result means Braga have now won three on the bounce since Amorim took over and the club now sit 5th in their domestic league.
Amorim’s first game in charge of Braga saw them wipe the floor with Belenenses 7-1 before defeating Tondela 2-1 in his second.
After Rangers had drawn Braga the club’s supporters were quite rightly pleased with the draw having missed out on potential ties with the likes of Ajax and Inter Milan.
But the fact that the Portuguese outfit has defeated Porto on their own patch will alert the support to the potential dangers of a side which have players who are something of an unknown quantity.
Braga finished top of their Europa League group, going unbeaten with Wolves, Besiktas and Slovan Bratislava as their competition.
Whilst Steven Gerrard and his backroom staff will be in no way underestimating the challenge ahead of them come the end of February, the result against Porto may come as a surprise to fans.
This will be amongst the toughest tests Rangers and Steven Gerrard have faced in European competition yet.
