Ange Postecoglou returns to Glasgow to face his former rivals Rangers in the UEFA Europa League. We look ahead to the game with our Rangers vs Tottenham prediction and preview.
Rangers vs Tottenham: The Key Insights
- Tottenham are favourites with the Opta supercomputer, beating Rangers in 48.7% of data-led simulations.
- Rangers are winless in their last six meetings with English sides (D1 L5).
- Tottenham have spent the most minutes (276) and the greatest proportion of their games (57%) in a winning position in the Europa League this season, but they sit ninth in the table.
It’s an all-British clash in the Europa League this week as Rangers welcome Tottenham to Ibrox on Thursday.
Rangers don’t have the best of records against English opponents in recent history though, winless in their last six such matches (D1 L5). You have to go back over 30 years to find the last time they beat an English side, winning home and away against Leeds United in qualifying for the 1992-93 UEFA Champions League.
Rangers come into this game above Spurs in the Europa League table, albeit on goal difference alone. The Gers occupy the last of the automatic qualification spots in eighth with Spurs a place behind.
Philippe Clement’s side are a long way back from league leaders Celtic in the Scottish Premiership but still head into this fixture in excellent form. They enjoyed a dominant 4-1 away victory over Nice in the Europa League last time out, following that up with three consecutive wins without conceding in the Scottish top flight.
Their game against Nice saw Rangers score four goals in an away European tie for just the eighth time in their history, with that the first time since a 4-2 win at Borussia Dortmund in February 2022.
Those four goals took their tally to 12 in five Europa League games this season. Rangers have only previously netted more in a single major European competition group stage once before, in the 2020-21 Europa League (13).
Going into the game on a run of form is not something that can be said of Spurs, though. Former Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou returns to Glasgow under increasing pressure after a wildly inconsistent start to the season. His side haven’t won a game since beating Manchester City 4-0 last month, and that run includes disappointing defeats in their last two league games, going down 1-0 at Bournemouth before throwing away a two-goal lead at home to Chelsea.
That inconsistency has seeped into their European campaign, too. Despite spending the most minutes (276, inc. injury time) and the greatest proportion of their games (57%) in a winning position among all clubs in the Europa League this season, they only sit ninth in the table. Conceding a last-minute equaliser against Roma in their last European outing was another example of their inability to see games out.
Tottenham saw both centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero forced off in the defeat to Chelsea, and both are serious doubts for this fixture. Brennan Johnson was also subbed off due to illness, while Ben Davies is dealing with a hamstring injury.
For Rangers, Tom Lawrence and Óscar Cortés are doubts to play. Rabbi Matondo recently returned to training but is not registered in the club’s Europa League squad.
Rangers vs Tottenham Head-to-Head
Tottenham won their only two previous meetings with Rangers, winning 5-2 at home and 3-2 away in the 1962-63 Cup Winners’ Cup second round.
Spurs went on to lift the trophy that year, becoming the first English team to win a major European honour.
Rangers vs Tottenham Prediction
Despite the two sides’ contrasting form, the Opta supercomputer struggled to see past an away win here. Spurs secured victory in 48.7% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Rangers took all three points in 27.3% of data-led sims, while the draw occurred in 24.0%.
Rangers vs Tottenham Predicted Lineups
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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