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While Playing two games a week puts a strain on the players it is absolutely great for the supporters only having to wait three or four days for the chance to watch the famous. The games will be coming quick and fast up until Christmas due to the teams fantastic performances in the Europa league. After climbing the mountains of the qualifying stages as one of the few teams to go through to the group stages from the first qualifying round we now start the first round of the group stages against the Spanish Euro league giants Villareal. While we are not yet back where we want to be as that is in the Champions League the distance we have travelled to get this far is outstanding. Even just thinking about it, only a few years ago we were talking about playing Peterhead and Berwick Rangers and now we are playing Villareal in a Europa league group stage. How good does that sound? Villareal, Rapid Wien and Spartak Moscow and the famous Glasgow Rangers. Get in there! So what do we know about Villareal? They have qualified from the group stages and scored more group stage goals in the Europa league than any other team.They have had a bad start to the season but won on Sunday against Leganes. It was valuable points for Villareal but as Leganes missed a penalty then their win was somewhat fortuitous. They set up in a 4-4-2\4-1-3-2 with attacking full backs and that line-up leaves room for hitting them on the break. The midfield battle will be oh so important. With Steven Gerrard setting his Rangers teams up in a 4-2-3-1 then the Gers will be placed to soak up pressure and hit Villareal on the break. I believe Rangers will start with the 4-3-2-1 setup which with the injuries and bans we have, actually makes it easy to pick the team. We know that Ryan Jack, Ovie Ejaria are injured so that will leave the choice of Andy Halliday and Ross McCrorie for that second defensive midfield role. It has been clear over the last few weeks that Gerrard prefers the experienced Halliday over the teenage McCrorie so it is pretty certain our two holding midfielders will be Lassana Coulibaly and Andy Halliday. I doubt the boss will pick this game to make any changes in defence so with Jon Flanagan suspended, Gareth McAuley injured and Joe Worrall an untried commodity we will start with the tried and trusted defence of Tavernier Goldson Katic and thankfully Borna Barisic. Barisic is now available after being cup-tied for the qualifying rounds after having played for Osijek which included a game against the bears. Alan McGregor since returning to the club has been a rock in the goal. Maybe rock is the wrong word because a rock is a pretty static object and Alan McGregor is anything but static. McGregor pulls of reactionary saves that sometimes are beyond belief. McGregor gives the defence a lot of confidence as they know they can trust him if they play back to him and even if they make a mistake McGregor has the ability to pull them out the fire. Confidence in your keeper makes a huge difference to the confidence of defenders. Gerrard Has already said that Kyle lafferty will lead the line as Alfredo Morelos is suspended for the game due to his red card against UFA. One thing is certain tonight, the players have to have the discipline to keep eleven players on the field. We are now in with the big boys and won't get away with playing with men short. That only leaves an attacking midfield three. Eros Grezda was introduced against Dundee on Saturday but after missing most of the season until now through injury he is far from being match fit for a game as big as villareal and I doubt he will even show. Ovie Ejaria is injured so unless Gerrard throws a curve ball the midfield three will be Daniel Candeias, Scott Arfield and Ryan Kent. The work rate of Kent and Candeias in attacking and defending is second to none. Kent and Barisic on the left is still a work in progress but the partnership of Candeias and Tavernier has become a pretty well oiled machine. Glenn Middleton will show at sometime but I doubt we will be starting with the 18 year old. This is a great opportunity to see just how far we have really come. I think the team will be: McGregor Tavernier Goldson Katic Barisic Halliday Coulibaly Candeias Arfield Kent Lafferty So only one more thing to say. C'Mon the Gers get in tae them!!!

Told you two each even had a ten pound on it at the bookies ?

You feeling ok??

You may have a point. What a debate; 'My player's worse than yours'...

Bloody good result. We rode our luck in places but I'll take that with a big cheesy grin.

Very proud of the team!

Worrall makes his first start for the club... McGregor Tavernier Worrall Goldson Barisic Coulibaly Halliday Arfield Candeias Lafferty Kent

Shaggers save low to his right in the first half was simply stunning world class. How he got to it I will never know?

superb result. like most i feared the worst after 43 seconds but we grew into the game and by half time i thought we were comfortable although we had done very little to try to score. second half i though Villarreal came out the traps on fire again for 10 mins but once we weathered that we again grew into it but this time tried to create chances as well and got a great equaliser. we then fell asleep and conceded a really poor second with at least 5 players guilty of not closing down their man but we just rolled the sleeves up and got into them again and i think a draw was a fair result overall. A deserved draw away from home against 5th best Spanish side. I want that to sink in a bit! The intensity of our European performances has been fantastic this season and its important we treat our Scottish opponents with the same attitude and intensity, which i think we havent quite managed to do so far. if we can do that we will definitely be title contenders. For now im looking forward to a few days of walking with a spring in my step. Thanks to the manager, coaches and players again for making us proud again.

Not me anyway. That result tonight....I would've laughed my head off 3 months ago if you'd told me we'd manage it.

“PROUD” is how Steven Gerrard declared himself following tonight’s tremendous 2-2 draw with Villarreal at Estadio de la Ceramica. https://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/gerrard-so-proud-of-players-2/

I don't get why Worrall was in ahead of Katic when not only hasn't he played alongside Goldson he hasn't played at all. Puzzling but we got an acceptable result.

This.

Absolutely astounding result tonight. We just went to the 5th best team in Spain, scored 2 goals and could have won the game. Regardless of their iffy start to the season. they finished above Sevilla last season, drew with them recently and they're full of top players. What a fucking result. It's rare to see a Scottish side go away in Europe and get a result like this.

Thursday, 20 September 2018, 21:13 by Nick Thomson 93 “PROUD” is how Steven Gerrard declared himself following tonight’s tremendous 2-2 draw with Villarreal at Estadio de la Ceramica. Visit website please Article Copyright © 2018. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to www.rangers.co.uk

Just so pleased with that result. So many expected us to lose by 2 or 3 against a top side in La liga. Well done.

Delighted with that result. Some real guts shown by the team and a quality finish by Lafferty. This is light years from the shambles of last season. Well done to the team and the management who have turned things around and given us belief again. Plenty more to do though. Let;s go!

Proud of that performance. Showed guts desire and passion to get back into it. That was our Rangers out there tonight...... it's been a long journey but we are getting back

Never seen the match nor listened to any radio commentary just followed it on line ,but let's celebrate tonight lads we have waited long enough for a decent European result go on have yourselves a wee pint or a whisky .

Much improved second half where we actually got forward much better and took our chances when they came. In the end we could have won it but can't argue with a point. Delighted to see Dorrans fit and playing again as well!

Gerrard said looked jaded in training has played 15/16 games already. No knock or injury

I am still going for two each , Mon the gers .

i personally have set my expectations low for the groups and thing anything we can get would be a huge bonus. However what a nice feel it is to be participating at this level is european football again after all the years. I'm going to make sure I really enjoy these next six matches and certainly not take them for granted.

Peat's response to the "chairman" in question should have been " go fuck yourself and i'm going public" and as it obviously wasn't we should be asking why wasn't it?

I can't see an issue with what C1872 are proposing. They are just confirming what the situation is anyway. If it assists the Chairman of the club, who has lent the club at least £6.7 million (and probably more), then great. If it doesn't help him then no harm done.

I think you are missing the point here Bruce. The issue is not whether C1872 would ever sell the shares, but whether they would be prepared to sign a formal undertaking that this would be the case. This would then be taken to the TPO/ Court of Session as evidence of the level of funding required in order to support a mandatory offer. We can only assume that this is due to the difficulties of getting monies out of South Africa. So anything that might help speed things along seems perfectly sensible from my point of view. I would struggle to believe that the club would approach C1872 alone in terms of signing similar undertakings, so I really don't see an issue here.

The email relates to C1872 issuing a formal declaration that they won't sell at this time. It seems sensible that the membership be consulted before such a communcation is given, if only to appease the TOP that it's a considered decision and not a unilateral one by the C1872 executive.

To me, this is far worse behaviour than Reid's phone call. It's the actions of a scummy club and it shows how low they are willing to go.

honest accurate assessment. want to see that type of desire, intensity and quality domestically as well, starting Sunday.

If ~SBS is impressed we must have done something right.

Definitely got lucky in places, When that guy rose for the header at the end with just seconds remaining I though aw shit he can't miss but he did. And at the same time they rode their luck too. Think it was Arfield who could have put us 3-2 up with around 10 minutes or so to go? At the end of the day a draw was a fair result. But we get extra credit for an away draw while they failed to win at home.

We took a point away in what should on paper be the toughest match we have to face in this group. And considering this wasn't our strongest 11 I think we can look forward with confidence.

Thought after that first minute goal that it was going to be just backs to the wall stuff , but we grew into the game, and were unlucky in the end not to get the win. 2-2 away from home..i'll take that though ?

Or Filip Sebo? Seems he's turned himself into a male model these days...

Still open mate so it is yours. Fixture list has been updated to the winter stop so get your names down please. Don't be shy to put your names down more than once.

This looks like a risky game to me. If it ever emerges that Club1872 are doing this at the behest or encouragement of the Rangers board then there could be severe legal consequences for both. It would amount to nothing less than conspiracy to defeat the direction arising from a senior court judgement. I hope they have their stories well prepared because this will definitely be scrutinised.