Rangers vs Galatasaray 02/10/20

2 October 2020

Ibrox Stadium is the venue as Rangers and Galatasaray battle it out for a place in the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League group stage.

The hosts have started their 2020/21 European campaign with a 5-0 thumping of Lincoln Red Imps in the second qualifying round before dismantling Willem II 4-0 last time out. In fact, the ‘Gers’ go into this clash on the back of a ten-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W8, D2), keeping a clean sheet eight times along the way. The Scottish giants have endured mixed fortunes in their seven previous European encounters with Turkish opponents (W2, D3, L2), although none of those defeats came on home soil. Additionally, Ibrox has been a fortress when it comes to Rangers’ European games held here, as they’ve suffered just one loss from their last 18 UEFA matches at home, qualifying included (W12, D5).

On the other hand, the visitors have entered this season’s competition in the second qualifying round, beating Neftci Baku 3-1 on the road before edging past Hajduk Split 2-0 at home. Curiously, four of the five goals Galatasaray scored across those two fixtures arrived in the second half of play. The Turkish heavyweights have yet to lose to Scottish clubs in Europe (W1, D1), but they’ve failed to get on the scoresheet in all eight of their previous UEFA trips. Indeed, they’ve lost six of those matches (D2), five via at least a two-goal margin. The one thing that could provide some comfort to Fatih Terim is that his men have gone from six consecutive competitive trips (D3, L3) without a win to back-to-back triumphs.