Giovanni van Bronckhorst has named his Rangers side to face Ajax as they bid to get off the mark on the final matchday.
The Light Blues' Champions League return has not gone to plan with five defeats from five games to date and a whopping 19 goals conceded with just one in their favour. They could end the night with an unwanted record in the competition but after a big result and performance to match against Aberdeen, the injury-hit home side will be flying and determined to give the fans something to cheer under the lights in Govan.
Third spot in the group and a place in the Europa League knockouts is still possible, but would require a victory by five goals. That is due to Ajax winning 4-0 in Amsterdam on matchday one to take control in terms of head to head. The Dutch giants have only won that one match, losing twice to both Liverpool and Napoli ahead of their trip to Glasgow.
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Speaking ahead of the game, Rangers boss Van Bronckhorst said: “I can only speak for my team, we’ve had a difficult run in Europe this season in the Champions League and we have the last chance tomorrow [tonight] to have a positive result, that’s what we are trying to do and that’s all that matters tomorrow.
“We knew the opposition that we are facing in the Champions League is of a much higher level than what we faced last season. It’s been really tough, once we qualified after PSV, I knew that it was going to be a really tough European season. You want to always have the highest level of opponents, that’s what you want as players and club – you want to be at the highest level as the opposition is quite strong.
“The group is very hard; you can see Ajax only have three points whereas they had a 100% record last season in the Champions League – you can see the level in Napoli and Liverpool shown in this group. It will be a very hard game as Ajax are a very good team.”
RANGERS XI: McGregor, Tavernier, Colak, S. Davis, Kent, Sands, Sakala, Barisic, Arfield, King, Tillman
Subs: McCrorie, McLaughlin, Matondo, Kamara, Morelos, Wright, Devine, Fraser, Lowry, Allan
AJAX XI: Pasveer, J. Timber, Bassey, Alvarex, Wijndal, Bergwijn, Taylor, Tadic, Sanchez, Kudus, Berghuis
Subs: Stekelenburg, Gorter, Klaassen, Brobbeu, Ocampos, Ahmetcan Kaplan, Rensch, Blind, Lucca, Grillitsch, Magallan, Francisco Conceicao.
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