UEFA Europa League
action returns as the league phase enters its final stages. Look
ahead to one of the matches of the round with our Man Utd vs
Rangers prediction and preview.
Man Utd
vs Rangers Stats: The Key Insights
- Man Utd were victorious in 58.2% of the Opta supercomputer’s
pre-match simulations. - If Bruno
Fernandes plays on Thursday, it’ll be his 50th Europa League
appearance. - Rangers haven’t won away to an English team in UEFA competition
since beating Leeds in the 1992-93 Champions League.
Manchester United can briefly put their Premier
League struggles to the back of their minds when they take on
Rangers in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday – though they don’t
have much room for manoeuvre in that competition either.
United find themselves in a difficult moment. Although
commendable draws
away to Liverpool in the Premier League and at Arsenal in the
FA Cup – which was followed by a win on penalties – earlier this
month seemed to hint at their potential under Ruben Amorim,
performances otherwise haven’t been convincing.
Only a very late
Amad Diallo hat-trick bailed United out amid a dreadful display at
home to rock-bottom Southampton in the league last Thursday,
before they were
comfortably beaten 3-1 at Old Trafford by Brighton at the
weekend.
That result was followed by Amorim suggesting this was “the
worst team, maybe, in the history of Manchester United” – it was a
bit of an exaggeration but managed to highlight how incredible
their current situation is in the context of their past success in
the Premier League era.
A return to Europa League action on Thursday might provide a
welcome distraction, potentially even an opportunity for Amorim to
shuffle his team somewhat with no new injury absences to add to the
existing issues facing Luke
Shaw, Mason
Mount, Victor
Lindelöf and Jonny
Evans.
It remains to be seen whether Marcus
Rashford, who United are trying to offload this month, will be
involved, while Tyrell
Malacia and Antony
are both supposedly close to agreeing loan moves away.
Captain Bruno Fernandes is unlikely to be rested, however, and
if he does play, it’ll be his 50th appearance in the competition.
He has 37 goals and assists combined in the Europa League (20
goals, 17 assists), second only to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (40 –
34 goals, 6 assists) in its entire history.
While United’s situation in the Europa League isn’t quite as
hairy as in the Premier League, they have only a one-point cushion
in the automatic knockout qualification spots. And it’s also worth
considering their form on the whole has arguably worsened since
they were last in European action, in a late and unconvincing 2-1
win at Viktoria Plzen on 12 December.
They also had to do things the hard way in Amorim’s first Europa
League game in charge, as United came from 2-1 down to beat
Norway’s Bodø/Glimt on 28 November.
Rangers head into the game in better form than their hosts.
While manager Philippe Clement has come under pressure in recent
times, they’ve won each of their past three games in all
competitions, and their seven-match unbeaten run has also included
a 3-0 defeat of Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic.
Sat eighth in the Europa League table, the final automatic
last-16 qualification spot, Rangers are just a point and a place
behind United with two games left. A defeat for either side at this
point may ultimately be costly, as they would then likely have to
contest a play-off for a place in the last 16.
While Rangers do not appear to have any new absences, several
players won’t travel. Tom Lawrence is out with a hamstring injury
and therefore not expected to face his former club. Jack Butland is
another former United player who is likely to miss out. Danilo and
Ianis Hagi are ineligible, while Óscar Cortés is unlikely to
feature after missing out at the weekend with a “small injury”.
Man Utd
vs Rangers Head-to-Head
Man Utd can at least draw some confidence from positive
omens.
For starters, they are unbeaten in all four of their prior
meetings with Rangers, keeping a clean sheet on each occasion (W3
D1).
Similarly, Rangers have won just one of their eight away games
against English sides in all European competition (D2 L5), beating
Leeds United 2-1 in the second round of the 1992-93 UEFA Champions
League. They did earn a 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham on MD 6 of
this season’s Europa League.
As underwhelming as United have been this season, they’ll be
favourites here.
Man Utd
vs Rangers Prediction
Man Utd’s status as favourites can be supported by the fact they
emerged victorious in 58.2% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000
pre-match simulations.
Rangers left Old Trafford with all three points in 20.1% of the
sims, while the draw occurred 21.7% of the time.
That of course means the projection model suggests there’s a
41.8% likelihood of Rangers at least getting a point at Old
Trafford, odds they’ll probably be happy with.
As for their wider expectations in the competition, United
reached the last 16 in 91.7% of the season simulations and go all
the way, lifting the trophy in Bilbao, 6.7% of the time – that
makes them joint-fourth favourites with Roma despite their erratic
form.
Rangers, on the other hand, are given a 63.2% chance of getting
to the last 16. They win the trophy in 1% of the simulations.
Opta
Power Rankings
The
Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They
assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams.
This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the
worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the
world.
Ahead of kick-off on Thursday, here is the Opta Power Ranking
for both sides.
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