Rangers play host to RB Leipzig on Thursday evening looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the second leg of their Europa League semi-final.
At a time when second-placed Rangers are realistically out of the title race in the Scottish Premiership, Leipzig have recently dropped down to fifth position in the Bundesliga.
Match preview
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Second-best in both the top flight and this European semi-final, there is a real possibility that Rangers' only piece of silverware this season comes via the Scottish Cup.
Nevertheless, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's team will continue to fight for an historic treble, and they will head into their upcoming clash with Leipzig with little fear.
Albeit with a defensively-minded performance, Rangers nullified RB Leipzig for the majority of the first leg in Germany last Thursday before Angelino's decisive goal in the 85th minute.
A narrow defeat was harsh on the Scottish giants who were missing several key players, but they would have probably taken a one-goal deficit ahead of the return fixture at Ibrox had it been offered to them beforehand.
Van Bronckhorst had the tricky conundrum of finding a balance between naming a side capable of challenging Celtic last weekend and being well-rested for this contest, with the Gers doing themselves credit to earn a 1-1 draw through Fashion Sakala's second-half equaliser.
While the draw against their Old Firm rivals will realistically prove detrimental in the title race, it was somewhat of a confidence boost ahead of trying to defeat a German giant for the second time in this competition.
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On paper, Leipzig are a marginally-easier opponent than Borussia Dortmund were back in February, but that means little now that they travel to Scotland with a lead.
Domenico Tedesco would have had high hopes for being further in front against opponents who were missing their best forward players, although he may feel that Leipzig's focus will now be stronger with Rangers still in the tie.
There is a lot more riding on this fixture than Tedesco would have envisaged with Leipzig suffering back-to-back defeats in the Bundesliga, losses which have left them outside of the Champions League places.
After losing at home to Union Berlin ahead of the first Rangers game, Leipzig went down 3-1 at Borussia Moncehengladbach on Sunday, even with their opponents playing the final 26 minutes with 10 men.
Although Leipzig have certainly improved under Tedesco during the second half of the season, their next four fixtures will define whether it will be deemed successful with a top-four finish and the DFB-Pokal also on their list of targets.
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Team News
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Having missed the last three fixtures with a knee injury, Kemar Roofe is pushing to return to the Rangers squad.
Should that prove to be the case, Van Bronckhorst must decide whether to take a risk on the forward, although it appears more realistic that either Joe Aribo or Sakala will feature down the middle.
Aaron Ramsey is also in contention to return after a hamstring problem, while Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara should feature after only being named as substitutes versus Celtic.
Leipzig could be forced into at least one alteration with Josko Gvardiol having been withdrawn during the first half against Monchengladbach through injury.
Marcel Halstenberg and Lukas Klostermann are both in line to return to the backline, as is Dominik Szoboszlai who could be preferred to frontman Andre Silva.
Emil Forsberg and Yussuf Poulsen will also feel like they could be recalled after their appearances as substitutes on Sunday.
Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic; Lundstram, Jack, Kamara; Aribo, Sakala, Kent
RB Leipzig possible starting lineup:
Gulacsi; Klostermann, Orban, Halstenberg; Henrichs, Laimer, Adams, Angelino; Olmo; Szoboszlai, Nkunku
We say: Rangers 1-2 RB Leipzig (RB Leipzig to win 3-1 on aggregate)
Even with the possibility of players returning to the squad for this contest, Rangers require a European performance for the ages to reach the final of this competition. While home advantage gives Rangers every chance of getting on the scoresheet, they will find it difficult to repel Leipzig at the other end, leading us to predict another German win.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rangers win with a probability of 50.1%. A win for RB Leipzig had a probability of 27.62% and a draw had a probability of 22.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Rangers win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.4%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.18%) and 2-0 (6.86%). The likeliest RB Leipzig win was 1-2 (6.75%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.85%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Rangers would win this match.
