With the first leg of Rangers’ Europa League Qualifying Playoff Round against Legia Warsaw now just two days away, Tom Hateley, the son of Gers legend Mark, has previewed the tie, in an interview with the Glasgow Evening Times.
Tom is currently based in Poland and was a shock league champion last season with Piast Gliwice. He was a regular in the side that just about pipped favourites Legia to claim their first-ever top-flight title.
The blue nose says the Polish giants aren’t the force they were even a few years ago and that Rangers are considered favourites going into the tie.
Tom Hateley says Rangers favourites to make group stages
“They fired their coach Ricardo Sa Pinto towards the end of last season, and Aleksander Vukovic has come in and has shaken things up a little,” explained Hateley, as quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times. “They sold probably their best player, Sebastien Szymanski, to Dinamo Moscow in the summer, while their top scorer from last season, Carlitos, is out of favour. It’s strange, because he got 16 goals last season and is a good player.”
“They are playing a younger striker, Jaroslaw Niezgoda, but while he is decent, he isn’t anywhere near as prolific. He has been partnering Lucquinhas in recent games, and neither has scored this season yet.
“The main difference with Legia now is that they don’t have that 30-goal a season striker they can rely upon for regular goals.”
Verdict
It’s interesting to get the insight of a boyhood Rangers fan currently plying his trade in the Ekstraklasa.
Hateley’s Gliwice haven’t come up against Legia yet this season, but they shocked the Polish game by pipping them to the title last term. Based on his comments, it seems that after that disappointment, Rangers’ upcoming opponents have weakened rather than strengthened.
His opinion is backed up by the stats, too.
Legia picked up a confidence-boosting win at the weekend, but it was far from convincing and they only mustered one goal. That’s just four in their first four matches, leaving them eighth in the table on seven points.
That kind of stat and Hateley’s comments should have Bears excited heading into the two legs. This is very much a winnable tie for the Gers, as long as they stick to what has worked so well for them over the early part of the campaign.
