Rangers FC kick off their Europa League campaign this week when they welcome Dutch side Feyenoord at Ibrox on Thursday.
And most pundits believe the result of this match might set the tone of the group for the remaining of the matches.
The Teddy Bears are in Group G of the Europa League alongside the likes of Young Boys, FC Porto and Feyenoord and without a doubt, this is perhaps one of the tougher groups in the competition.
Rangers did have a flawless qualifying stage where they ensured that they did not suffer even a single defeat. But the group stages will be a totally different ball game altogether.
But according to Andy Halliday, such a tough group is what it’s like to play in the Champions League – the final objective for the Ibrox outfit.
He said(as quoted by The Daily Record): “To be honest, I am delighted with the group that we have got. It is a bit of a Champions League group and the objective was to get into the group stages this year because you want to play these kind of fixtures.
“It is a big test for us but we have been tested before in the Europa League and stood up to it.
“I think this is a level above, it is a real test and all the fixtures are going to come with different issues.
“The one on Thursday is one we are really looking forward to and I think we have just got to take it a game at a time and see where it can take us.
“I have said it a couple of times that I think we have shown now that we do belong in this competition.
“Obviously you go back to the disappointment of Progres two years ago and, at that time, we weren’t ready, it was as simple as that. We weren’t good enough as a team, as a squad.
“But I think over the last two years we have shown that we belong here and that we can compete at this level.
“It is a step above but it is one I think we can handle.”
VERDICT:
Porto missed out on the domestic title last season by just two points and this campaign they have picked up wins in 4 out of their first 5 matches. So clearly beating them either home or away will not be an easy task for the Gers.
Young Boys are yet to suffer a loss in the 2019-20 season of the Swiss league and last campaign they won the title with a margin of 20 points.
So this basically means that Rangers will have to sweat it out in order to get to the next round of the Europa League and if they manage to pick up wins in both the legs vs Feyenoord then they might have a fighting chance.
