After Rangers were dumped out of the Champions League last week by Malmo, Steven Gerrard will be demanding progress past Armenian minnows Alashkert in the Europa League play-off round.
The first leg takes place at Ibrox on Thursday and, despite their less than convincing start to the season, the Gers will expect to secure a healthy lead ahead of the return leg.
Rangers Big Favourites
With a place in the group stage of the second-tier competition up for grabs – a position Rangers didn’t really want to find themselves in but now have no choice but to embrace – Gerrard is set to field a strong side.
Backing the Scottish champions to win the first leg, on offer at 1/8, represents no value at all so other angles to consider are over 3.5 goals in the game, at 7/5, and Rangers to win by four goals or more at 15/4.
Gerrard’s men have scored 10 goals across their five competitive games so far this season so finding the back of the net is clearly not a problem, while they are taking on very weak opposition, relatively speaking, with Alashkert only ever playing 29 games in European competition in their 30-year history, with all of those coming in the obscure preliminary rounds.
Alashkert will Make Euro History
After winning the title last season, Alashkert have lost both of their domestic league games to nil so far this term. However, they will make history as the first ever Armenian side to play in a European group stage. After defeating Kairat 3-2 in the previous round of the Europa League earlier this month, they now face Rangers over two legs and, even though this clash should be beyond them, Alashkert at least have a guaranteed Europa Conference League group place to fall back on.
Struggle for Gala?
In Thursday’s other Europa League play-off games, Turkish giants Galatasaray might struggle to see off Danish SuperLig leaders Randers, with a home first-leg win appealing at 11/5, while Czech Republic outfit Slavia Prague (1/2 to win first leg) should get the better of Legia Warsaw in their first-leg encounter.
HJK Can Cause First-Leg Upset
Finally, a possible upset could be on the cards when a confident HJK Helsinki go to Fenerbahce. The Finnish visitors look too big to win the first leg at 31/4 considering they are nine points clear at the top of their domestic division after 16 games and have won their last three games to nil.
*All odds correct at time of writing
