Slavia Prague are unhappy with the state of the Ibrox pitch ahead of their Europa League clash with Rangers, but arrive in Glasgow with the belief they can score the goal to dump Steven Gerrard’s side out of the competition.
The Czech side warmed up for their European excursion by cruising beyond Mlada Boleslav 3-0 on Sunday to preserve their unbeaten domestic record, but face a Gers side yet to taste defeat on the continental front.
Last Thursday’s 1-1 draw at the Eden Arena means Slavia need a goal to progress to the last eight of the competition, but Jindrich Tripsovsky’s men have found the net 66 times in 23 league games thus far, while forward Nicolae Stanciu has five in his last four alone.
Assistant boss Zdenek Houstecky believes they have the firepower to down Gerrard’s side, but admitted the less than pitch perfect condition of the Ibrox surface could be a cause for concern for the visitors.
However, he pointed out the side are used to rutted, difficult playing fields back home and backed the Czech champions to show their bite on the chewed up pitch.
"A few weeks ago it was really not in good condition but in their last league match against St Mirren it already looked better," he said.
"We saw from the video analysis that it doesn't look very good. That could be to our advantage though because we've played a lot of matches on bad terrain.
"We trust each other, we believe that we're strong in attack and that we'll score a goal.
"We're used to playing matches in quick succession, it helps that we played a good match at the weekend so we're in good form."
