Rangers are preparing to welcome Swiss outfit Servette to Ibrox Stadium this week as the club’s Champions League qualification campaign gets underway.
The Gers are set to meet the Super League side at the third round of qualifying after Servette overcame Belgian outfit KRC Genk in the second round.
After Rangers’ stuttering start to the Scottish Premiership season, where the 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock and abysmal performance has heaped the pressure on Michael Beale, better is expected tomorrow evening.
Rangers know that the clash with Servette will be a different type of game to the one with Kilmarnock and an expectant Ibrox will demand a level of focus and intensity which was sorely lacking in Ayrshire.
Michael Beale admitted in his pre-match press conference that there will be changes in the match and we suspect that the Ibrox manager will rejig things for what is a crunch game.
Even qualification for the playoff is worth around £4.5m (€5m) with either PSV Eindhoven or Sturm Graz waiting for the victor of this tie between Rangers and Servette.
We suspect that Jack Butland will start, the Rangers goalie a rare flicker of positivity from a weekend of dire negatives, with the back four unlikely to be change.
Rangers are in the midst of a mini defensive injury crisis – surprise, surprise – and James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, John Souttar and Borna Barisic are likely to start the game.
In midfield, we suspect John Lundstram and Nicolas Raskin will get the nod in the middle of the park, with Todd Cantwell backed to come back into the squad after being dropped for the defeat to Kilmarnock.
Up top, we reckon Sam Lammers will start in that number 10 role, playing behind Abdallah Sima slightly off the left and Brazilian forward Danilo up top.
Rangers predicted XI v Servette – 4-3-1-2
GK – Jack Butland
DR – James Tavernier
DC – Connor Goldson
DC – John Souttar
DL – Borna Barisic
CDM – John Lundstram
CM – Nicolas Raskin
CM – Todd Cantwell
CAM – Sam Lammers
ST – Abdallah Sima
ST – Danilo
