Slavia Prague boss Jindrich Trpisovsky has admitted the Europa League match with Rangers left his side short on "strength".
Rangers are in a strong position after their first leg at Slavia produced a 1-1 draw and a crucial away goal in a closely fought match.
Nicolae Stanciu curled in a stunner for the Czech champions after just seven minutes but Rangers drew level through Filip Helander.
The Premiership champions had their chances after the break but were grateful to Allan McGregor for a stunning save on Lukas Masopust at the death.
Speaking after his side's weekend game 3-0 win at FK Mladá Boleslav, Trpisovsky admitted the fixtures are piling up for the club - and he revealed his players were left shattered after Thursday’s draw.
Trpsovsky told Czech press iDNES : “It’s always a sensitive topic. Our program is accumulating, we have hard matches behind us, travel and rotation are necessary.
“In addition, we only had two days off after Thursday, which causes problems for some. Alex Bah, for example, is still getting used to it, so this time he started in the process.
“The match with Rangers, according to the data available to us, took a lot of our strength, so we are glad that we managed to involve some other players as well.”
Steven Gerrard 's side are looking to make it to the quarter-finals of the Europa League and will progress if they don't concede on Thursday night.
Rangers are fortunate to have had the weekend off and will be feeling well-rested for the crunch match.
However they'll have to stop hitman Stanciu, who scored a brace in his side’s win over FK Mladá Boleslav on Sunday.
After the match Stanciu insisted his side will be better prepared to take on Rangers after the comfortable away win, even if they are a bit tired.
He said: "It's true that a lot of players who played last Thursday played even now, it's a bit tiring because we often play with a similar line-up, but it's normal to be a little tired.
"I think it's better to have a match on the weekend and be in rhythm."
