Malmo v Rangers preview

Malmo v Rangers (agg 1 - 0)

Champions League third qualifying round second leg
Venue: Swedbank Stadium, Malmo Date: Wednesday, 2 August Kick-off: 1800 BST Coverage: BBC Sport website, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 5 live
TEAM NEWS
Rangers are still waiting to hear whether Dorin Goian will be cleared to play in their Champions League qualifier against Malmo.


They are appealing against a Uefa ruling that he is ineligible.

That came after the defender missed the first leg because his work permit had not been finalised in time.

Skipper David Weir failed to recover from a hamstring injury and did not travel, while striker Kyle Lafferty is also still sidelined through injury.

MATCH PREVIEW
Rangers travel to Sweden a goal behind after Daniel Larsson's 18th-minute winner at Ibrox last Tuesday.

The Scottish champions had gone into that game with only one competitive game - a 1-1 draw at home to Hearts in the Scottish Premier League - behind them.

They showed an improvement at the weekend, beating St Johnstone 2-0 in Perth to secure their first win under new manager Ally McCoist.

Malmo are midway through their season and travelled to Glasgow buoyed by a 2-2 draw away to Swedish league leaders Helsingborgs.

However, the reigning champions' most recent game, against Djurgardens, was abandoned after only 11 minutes on Saturday after firecrackers were thrown on to the pitch.

That was the second time this season that a match has been halted at the Swedbank Stadium.

MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head

Last week's first leg, won 1-0 by Malmo, was the first time the two sides have met.

Malmo

Malmo were crowned Swedish champions for the 16th time last year, but they are midway through the present season and are struggling in ninth place in the table.

Although they have two games in hand, they lie 16 points behind leaders Helsingborgs.

Rikard Norling took over as coach in May from Roland Nilsson, who move to Gothenburg.

The 40-year-old is a former midfielder who played alongside Celtic assistant manager Johan Mjallby with Bele, who he subsequently coached before spells in charge of Vasby, Sundsvall, AIK of Stockholm and Assyriska.

Their main threat at Ibrox came through the speed of forwards Wilton Figueiredo and Daniel Larsson.

Rangers

The Ibrox side have never triumphed in a European tie after losing the first leg at home in 55 years of competing at the top level.

The Glasgow outfit will be without the support of their fans in Malmo after Uefa banned them for one match for discriminatory chanting at their Europa League match against PSV Eindhoven last season.

Rangers crashed out of the competition at the same stage to Lithuanians Kaunas in 2008, just months after Walter Smith's side reached the final of the Uefa Cup.

Smith was succeeded this summer as manager by Ally McCoist, the former Rangers and Scotland striker who was his assistant.

McCoist has added winger Juan Martin Ortiz from Almeria and left-back Lee Wallace from Hearts to his squad, but the capture of Dorin Goian from Palermo came too late for the Romania central defender to feature in the first leg.

Nay Bother wrote:You make a valid a point in your last post, just in a completely fuddish way.

You seem to have a completely biased view towards anything Scottish football, blame the old firm for poor ranking despite the national team, and other teams being beaten consistently in Europe by teams from the Faroe Islands.

However people may be more responsive to your comments if you decided to make a considered argument.

Just a thought, but as you point out often, it is a public forum and you can choose to post how you want