Feyenoord start their Europa League group campaign with a trip to Glasgow to face Rangers. Kick-off at Ibrox is at 8pm.

Feyenoord eased into the group stages after comfortable wins over Dinamo Tbilisi and Hapoel Beer Sheva in the qualifying rounds.

The draw hasn’t been kind to Jaap Stam’s side with Porto, Young Boys and Thursday’s opponents Rangers making up Group G.

In Europe, Feyenoord have been excellent but domestically, Stam’s side have had an indifferent start. They are unbeaten with two wins and four draws but their performances have been far from convincing. At the weekend, Feyenoord eased into a 3-0 lead but let ADO Den Haag back into the game in the second half and only just clung on to a 3-2 win.

Rangers, who finished behind Celtic in the Scottish Premier League last season, came through four qualifying rounds to reach the group stages for a second year running. St Josephs, Progres Niederkorn, FC Midtjylland and Legia Warsaw were no match for Steven Gerrard’s side.

They have also made a good start in the league with four wins out of five so far.

Speaking at his press conference, Stam said his side are heading to Glasgow to win, “We are not coming here to wait for that one counter from which we can score. We want to show what we can do.

“Steven Gerrard loves good football and I expect his team to show that tomorrow. But we have looked closely at Rangers and we certainly see opportunities. As a sportsman you always try to win.”

Team News

Steven Berghuis missed the win over ADO Den Haag but he is back for Thursday’s clash. Nicolai Jorgensen returned to action at the weekend after a long spell out injured and the Danish striker could feature, most likely from the bench.

Possible Feyenoord line-up: Vermeer, Karsdorp, Haps, Ie, Botteghin, Fer, Tapia, Kokcu, Larsson, Narsingh, Berghuis

Rangers will be without summer signing Ryan Kent, who is injured. Jordan Jones is also out while Jamie Murphy is a doubt.

Possible Rangers line-up: McGregor, Tavernier, Halliday, Katic, Goldson, Arfield, King, Davis, Ojo, Barker, Morelos

Odds

Rangers 6/5 Draw 23/10 Feyenoord 11/5

Can Feyenoord start with a victory?

Feyenoord and Rangers will both have ambitions to reach the knockout stages of this competition and the matches between them will definitely be close.

Ibrox can be an intimidating stadium to play in and the atmosphere should be bouncing on Thursday night. However, Feyenoord have the experienced heads to deal with the pressure and have the pace to hit Rangers on the counter-attack.

In Europe, Feyenoord have been great so far and with Jorgensen back, Stam’s side definitely have a chance of achieving three points if they can keep it tight at the back.

It will be an emotional night with both sides set to pay tribute to Fernando Ricksen, who sadly passed away on Wednesday.




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