We have all now seen Slavia Prague, and it’s clear they are a well-drilled, competent team.
It also has to be said that The Czech press really just don’t know what to think about Rangers.
They clearly think Slavia Prague were the better team last week, but they also noticed that in just three attacks we scored once, had their keeper struggling to keep out a shot by Ryan Kent, and Connor Goldson was inches away from connecting with a fantastic cross from Barisic.
They are also worried that Slavia Prague had to play another exhausting game over the weekend, and the Rangers players are no longer suffering from their well-deserved hang-over from winning the league. God what a party that was J.
And after three years of progress, Rangers now have a well-deserved giant killer reputation in Europe.
Over those years not one European team has really outplayed us, and with so many victories, it is clear that we really do belong at the top table in Europe.
Tonight, we now have the belief and the ability to win this game. This is because we do have the better team, and there is just more inventiveness up front, and even without Ryan Jack’s ability to read a move 10 seconds faster than anyone else, we still have a good solid defensive and attacking midfield.
I have looked at this Slavia Praha team very carefully, and though I was very impressed with their hard work, as I said before last week’s game, they just do not strike me as being very inventive, and they make basic mistakes, which we found out, when a little bit of pressure is put on their back line.
Now they need an away goal, and to get that goal they are going to be more open at the back, and as we have seen in prior matches, when Slavia Praha are forced to start chasing a result they tend to leave themselves open, by over-doing the high press, which is the only tactic they really have.
When they do that, the teams that can pass through their lines usually find they can start to tear this hard working team apart, and once that starts to happen this Slavia Prague team clearly panics, and their manager know it, and our manager knows it to.
One thing we all keep mentioning is how we got Aribo and Kamara for basically nothing, but what we often lose sight of is Ryan Kent and many others were told they were not good enough to play in the English top league.
Connor Goldson, Tavernier, and Aribo were all struggling to be noticed, and in the case of Ryan Kent he was never going to be picked to play a game. Then Rangers came along and gave them their chance, to show everyone what they really could do, and now we are just 90 minutes away from a place in the quarter finals, and who knows what could happen after that.
Tonight, I expect a very tough match, at this point all the easy teams have been eliminated, so that is just being obvious, but with both Roofe and Morelos available, and Patterson getting better with every game he plays, I honestly cannot see us losing to this team, unless we decide to sit back and do another Bayer Leverkusen, but I just don’t see Gerrard making that stupid mistake again.
My prediction is Rangers will win this game 3:1, or it could be another crazy night, and we might have yet another seven goal thriller. Either way, I’m really looking forward to tonight.
Game on.