On Tuesday evening, Rangers’ Europa League First Qualifying Round opponents were confirmed.
The club will face St Joseph’s of Gibraltar.
That’s after they defeated Kosovan side, FC Prishtina 3-1 on aggregate. The tie was evenly poised at 1-1 going into the second leg at the Victoria Stadium, but ill-discipline cost the visitors a trip to Ibrox.
Prishtina had two players dismissed in the opening minutes of the second half and the hosts eventually capitalised. Goals from Federico Villar and Juanfri secured their passage to the next stage.
Encouragingly for Rangers, St Joseph’s record in European qualifiers is poor up until now.
Last season, they went out on penalties at the Preliminary stage to B36 Torshavn. The season before that, they did manage to make it through to QR1 but were then hammered 10-0 on aggregate by AEL Limassol.
Therefore, despite being light on friendly fixtures going into this one, the Gers should still be confident.
However, question marks linger over when the match will be played. Gibraltar only has one suitable venue for UEFA competition, the Victoria Stadium. Therefore, if Europa FC, another club from the Rock, make it through to QR1, two teams would need to use the ground. In that instance, Rangers’ tie could take place next Tuesday 9th July, rather than Thursday 11th.
Here’s a selection of reactions to the confirmation the Gers will play ‘the Saints’:
https://twitter.com/Cairo1872/status/1146120830004453377
https://twitter.com/Laing1974/status/1146120369004306432
https://twitter.com/all_right_here/status/1146120351874764800
https://twitter.com/Healthsafetynew/status/1146127555998703622
