Overcame a £100M+ team – what Rangers face in Osijek

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Overcame a £100M+ team – what Rangers face in Osijek


Earlier on Ibrox Noise detailed a who’s who of the UEL third round, sides Rangers could face should we dispatch Croatians Osijek, and the general theme appeared to be ‘wait till we get there first’.

And having a proper look at our second round opponents, Steven Gerrard and Rangers have their work cut out to do that, and Osijek are not a side to be taken lightly.

Obviously, as we know, for a nation of 4M people Croatian football is in an excellent place right now – world cup finalists and justifiably so, the Baltic nation has seen its football grow since the country’s inception, and these days teams like Hadjuk Split, Croatia Zagreb and Rijeka are household names.

Osijek perhaps didn’t have the same gravity, but an excellent fourth placed finish last season in a growing and strengthening league is nothing to sniff at, getting there ahead of Nikola Katic’s old side Slaven Balupo and Lokomotiva.

However, it was their exploits last season in the UEL qualifiers which made everyone take notice, especially their outstanding clean sheet and double win over Dutch giants PSV.

Bear in mind this is a PSV filled with players valued in the multimillions – goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet is valued at 10M, Isimit Mirin at the back is 4M, Arias 18M, Pereiro 10M and Lozano 30M – 70M in just five players, and over a 100M in the rest.

That’s just a few, and Osijek overcame them superbly – only to go out on away goals in the next round v Austrian giants Vienna.

In short, Rangers have a tall order to break through this side – Shkupi they are not, and a Rangers who are not quite the final product will do outstandingly to actually make the third round.

It will make for fascinating viewing.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. I want to be positive but the fact that they overcame a fairly strong PSV team makes me anxious 🤔

    Especially as since SG is nowhere near finished the Rebuild 😖⚽

  2. Hmm. This sounds a little like getting the excuses in early to me. It's a long time since PSV were a major force, so let's not get carried away here. Similarly, unless the entire team is over 6'6" tall, calling Austria Vienna "giants" is also stretching things a little. I'd be disappointed if we couldn't get a result against all three of these.

  3. The one commodity money can't buy is desire, if our lads get that feeling that we do when pulling that gersey on the rest will take care of itself. remember the class of 92/93 who would ave thought it.

  4. Good thing big Katic has already played in a game vs them this year and beat them 2-1! MON THE GERS!!

  5. Hey IN…don't mean to be 'that guy' but Croatia sits on the Adriatic Sea, not the Baltic Sea.
    Great article otherwise. Rangers do have their work cut out for them. We can take these guys though. Let's Go!

  6. It will definitely be a step up, but I think there’s been too much emphasis on them beating PSV. Are they that good based on one tie a year ago? By the same token, are we that bad based on Progres?

  7. If we can keep the score down and sneak an away goal, I think we could be in with a chance. They won't be fancying us either, 50/50 I think.

  8. All will be good. They are bang average in most games as are we really…
    It will be close but if we are a little more creative up front then we are through for sure.
    We need the test – The whole point in pre season is a fn good test and this is a really good competitive test for us!
    Bring it on!

  9. Good. We need, those type of tests. We'll get as far as we can and that's that. So all I ask them to do, is NOT be lazy and do their best. Give it the best go we can. Any player who can't do that, doesn't deserve to wear the jersey. Besides, the more you play against quality, the better you become. Get stuck in and don't give them too much, respect.

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