Comments from Slavia Prague management regarding the Rangers pitch at Ibrox Stadium appear to have been blown well out of proportion.
The Gers hold a slender away goal advantage after the 1-1 draw in Prague and Slavia know they will need to score at Ibrox in order to progress to the quarterfinals of the Europa League.
Slavia assistant Zdenek Houstecky passed judgement on the pitch after being asked about it ahead of the Czech side’s match in Glasgow.
The surface at Ibrox has drawn the ire of Rangers fans over the course of the season who can’t quite understand why despite continuing investment the surface continues to let the ground down.
But when asked about it the Slavia assistant – far from playing mind games pre-match – suggested this could actually work to the Czech side’s advantage.
Not only that, but questions are only natural given Rangers’ previous opponents Royal Antwerp trained at Auchenhowie to preserve the pitch ahead of the last Europa League clash at Ibrox.
“We saw from the video analysis that it doesn’t look very good,” said Houstecky [Daily Record, translated from Slavia Prague’s YouTube].
“That could be to our advantage though because we’ve played a lot of matches on bad terrain.
“A few weeks ago it was really not in good condition but in their last league match against St Mirren it already looked better.
“We’ll see when we get there.”
Whilst it’s interesting they’ve mentioned the pitch it’s important to get some perspective regarding the comments, which were more diplomatic than aggressive.
Rangers will be hoping to go one step further in the competition than last season when they reached the last 16 before being eliminated by German side Bayer Leverkusen.
The Ibrox side will need to do it without one of their key players who could also be ruled out of the weekend’s clash with Celtic.
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