Rangers will come up against Barcelona bound wonderkid Francisco Trincao on Thursday night when they face Braga in the Europa League.
The first leg of the Gers’ Round of 32 tie is at Ibrox, but the Portuguese opposition will be arriving full of confidence.
Since Ruben Amorim took over as manager just before the new year, Braga have won eight of their nine games, defeating Sporting Lisbon and Porto twice, before downing Benfica at the weekend.
Their team isn’t full of household names, but they do have a number of talented individuals – not least, Francisco Trincao.
During the January transfer window, Barcelona announced that they had reached an agreement to sign the 20-year-old forward for a fee of €31 million, which equates to just under £26 million, in July 2020 [FCBarcelona.com].
That major transfer fee isn’t the most outrageous aspect of his move, though. That’s because the Catalan club have included a buy-out clause of €500 million.
It’s safe to say Barcelona rate the youngster highly, and it suggests Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic will have their hands full, should he start on Thursday night.
He’s made 25 appearances so far this season, scoring four times and registering six assists. In the main, he’s been deployed as an impact substitute, although he did start the final game of Braga’s group stage campaign, scoring once and setting up another in a 4-2 win at Slovan Bratislava.
Clearly, with this his first real season operating above Reserves level, Trincao is still very inexperienced.
However, while he’s not the only weapon Amorim has up his sleeve, he has featured much more prominently since the new manager’s appointment, and the Rangers back four will have to be at their sharpest to keep him quiet.
