After two defeats from three, Rangers must try to turn things around on Thursday evening, as they host Romanian champions FCSB in the Europa League.
While the Glasgow giants were heavily beaten in their last European outing, the visitors will look to extend a perfect start to the league phase as they arrive at Ibrox.
Match preview
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Having started their latest continental campaign by beating Malmo in Sweden, Rangers keenly awaited their first home fixture, which saw Lyon pay a visit to Govan at the start of October.
However, Philippe Clement's men ended up on the wrong side of a 4-1 defeat, as Alexandre Lacazette and Malick Fofana both scored twice to quieten the Ibrox crowd.
Including qualifiers, Rangers have now lost their last three home matches in UEFA competition, and they have never before lost four in a row throughout a long European history.
Though the Light Blues bounced back by seeing off St Johnstone a few days later, on returning from the international break they slipped up against Kilmarnock, with a 1-0 defeat leaving them six points adrift of Scottish Premiership pace-setters Aberdeen and Celtic.
That places more pressure on Clement, who started this season with just one win from four matches and has been struggling to get supporters back on side ever since.
Nonetheless, Rangers - Europa League finalists as recently as 2022 - have still lost only two of their last 17 home matches in Europe; they are also unbeaten in three previous Ibrox encounters with FCSB, when the Romanian side were under their former guise as Steaua Bucharest.
![William Baeten of FCSB celebrates after his side's victory after match against FC Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Uefa second leg champions league second qualifying round on July 31, 2024 [on August 4, 2024]](https://sm.imgix.net/24/31/william-baeten.jpg?w=640&h=480&auto=compress,format&fit=clip "William Baeten of FCSB celebrates after his side's victory after match against FC Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Uefa second leg champions league second qualifying round on July 31, 2024 [on August 4, 2024]")
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The clubs most recently met in the 1995 Champions League group stage, when a 1-1 draw in Scotland left FCSB with a record of two wins and one loss from their last four games against Rangers.
Unlike their hosts, the Ros-Albastrii have won both Europa League games so far, following a 4-1 defeat of Latvian outsiders RFS with a 1-0 victory over PAOK in Greece - star striker Daniel Birligea found the net on both occasions.
After regaining the Romanian SuperLiga title for the first time since 2015, FCSB began their continental campaign in the first round of Champions League qualifying, but after falling out of UEFA's top club competition they came through a playoff to secure their spot in the Europa League.
This term, the capital club have struggled at the start of their domestic title defence, sitting sixth after 12 rounds, but Cypriot coach Elias Charalambous did see his side beat Dinamo Bucharest in a derby clash last week, when Birligea was on target again.
That means FCSB are unbeaten in nine games across all competitions, posting seven wins in the process - and they have scored at least once in each match.
Team News
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Rangers are still missing Oscar Cortes, Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz due to injury, but Tom Lawrence completed his return from a hamstring problem at the weekend, while Ianis Hagi is now available after serving a suspension.
Ross McCausland remains a doubt, having missed Northern Ireland's recent UEFA Nations League matches and Saturday's Scottish Premiership defeat to Kilmarnock, with Brazilian striker Danilo is still short of fitness following a series of injuries.
Up front, Cyriel Dessers is likely to lead the line again, with his chief rival Hamza Igamane consigned to the bench.
Meanwhile, FCSB's main marksmen in the Europa League are captain Darius Olaru and Daniel Birligea, who have both scored twice including qualifying. However, Romania midfielder Olaru must serve a suspension this week, having been sent off against PAOK.
Adrian Sut has been given compassionate leave following the death of his father, and his absence could be one of several changes to the XI that lined up in the derby versus Dinamo.
Rangers possible starting lineup:
Butland; Tavernier, Souttar, Propper, Jefte; Diomande, Barron; Cerny, Lawrence, Bajrami; Dessers
FCSB possible starting lineup:
Tarnovanu; Pantea, Chiriches, Dawa, Radunovic; Edjouma, Alhassan; Stefanescu, Phelipe, Miculescu; Birligea
We say: Rangers 2-1 FCSB
Despite facing the sixth-highest number of shots in the Europa League this season (38), FCSB have conceded just one goal so far - but that surely indicates they can be caught out at the back.
Rangers are under pressure to improve, but if they get the game's first goal then three points may be theirs for the taking.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Jonathan O'Shea
