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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Sport
Ross Pilcher

Rangers storm awaits Malmo as Barry Ferguson predicts Champions League 'pandemonium'

Malmo are facing a storm when they enter Rangers ' backyard next week.

And Barry Ferguson is predicting 'pandemonium' as Steven Gerrard's men attempt to overturn a 2-1 deficit.

The Gers went down 2-1 in Sweden on Tuesday night in their Champions League third qualifying round first leg encounter.

But they've been given the green light to pack out Ibrox for the second leg with Scottish Government Covid restrictions ending early next week.

And Ferguson has warned the Swedes they won't have experienced anything like it as they attempt to hold on to their slender advantage and progress to the play-off round.

He wrote in his Daily Record column: "Malmo have been around the block and back again over the years.

"Experienced campaigners in the Champions League, they may well feel as if they’ve coped with everything European football has to offer.

"I’ve got news for them. They are about to walk into a perfect storm on Tuesday night at Ibrox and I’m not sure they’ll have the first idea what’s hit them when they come out of that tunnel before kick-off.

"A perfect storm? That famous UEFA soundtrack hasn’t been heard on this side of Glasgow for more than a decade.

"If that thought isn’t enough to get adrenaline pumping then I’m not sure what is.

"Then you add in the fact that the old place will be packed to the rafters for the first time in 18 months – on the back of a pandemic – and with a league title to celebrate as well as the stopping of Celtic’s 10 in a row?

"Trust me, I know what Ibrox is like on a European night.

"As a player, you can feel the electricity crackling in the air long before kick-off.

"But, in all my time at Rangers, I don’t think there was a set of circumstances even close to comparable with the situation the Swedes are about to find themselves wandering slap, bang into the middle of.

"Electric? This is going to be an outpouring of emotion like never before.

"Just thinking about it is making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I don’t think there’s any chance they’ll be prepared for the wall of noise that’s about to confront them.

"Look, this is a decent side and they’ve clocked up a lot of miles across the continent over the past few years so they’ll not be an easy lot to intimidate.

"But I honestly don’t believe they’ll have witnessed anything quite like it before and they probably never will again.

"This is the moment the genie comes out of the bottle for the first time in 10 years.

"It’s going to be out-and-out pandemonium in there."

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