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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gabriel McKay

Slavia Prague share Rangers pitch fears as assistant warns Ibrox turf 'doesn't look very good'

Assistant boss Zdenek Houstecky admits Slavia Prague have concerns about the condition of the Ibrox pitch ahead of Thursday's clash.

Rangers welcome the Czech champions for the second leg of their Europa League last 16 tie after a 1-1 draw at Eden Arena last week.

Slavia know they need to score to have any chance of progressing but have concerns over the playing surface.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard described the surface as "awful" in February last year, with the proximity to the River Clyde making it prone to flooding.

However, the Czechs are used to playing on poor pitches in their domestic competition and hope to overcome the issue.

(SNS Group)

Houstecky 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.

"A few weeks ago it was really not in good condition but in their last league match against St Mirren it already looked better.

"We'll see when we get there."

Houstecky also gave his analysis of the match, with Rangers ' away goal making it a tough test for Jindrich Trpisovsky's side.

The Slavia assistant said: "We haven't gone away with a 1-1 yet.

"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 (against Mada Boleslav) at the weekend so we're in good form.

"But a week off can help, so the Rangers players will have recovered."

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