As Ibrox Noise’s Derek has discussed earlier, the tie with Armenia’s Alashkert is an absolute no-win for Rangers.
Win anything less than 10-0 on aggregate (we’re not even exaggerating) and it’s a bit of a fail. Lose and it’s worse than the Proces Unicorn disaster.
In truth we can’t see it happening, even despite our patchy form – Alashkert are possibly the worst European opponent we’ve faced since Stevie took charge, and the man has guided us v St Joseph’s for goodness’ sake.
This team is abysmal, despite winning the league last season, they are now rock bottom of the throbbing metropolis of football that is the Armenian Premier League having been slapped around twice.
Of course, they could say the same about us – Scotland is hardly strong and we’re one win one loss. But common sense here, this is Armenia and a team bottom of their league is not to be feared.
But it is lose lose. Unless Rangers literally win each leg by about 5+ goals, this is a fail.
This team is not a whole load better than Dunfermline and we tore them to pieces with a tonne left in the tank, despite our indifferent recent displays.
So an absolute barrowload of goals is a must, along with a decent performance.
It’s a pity we’ve really not been able to make major headway in this transfer window, we’ve not invigorated the squad the way we needed to, but a decent campaign in the UEL with this squad isn’t impossible and will still bring in a few quid.
Just nothing like the gold on offer in the CL.
But we just weren’t ready, just weren’t good enough for that level. Not yet.
So bring on the damn Armenians!
I have to agree, but would settle for 7-0 over 2 legs.
I spent a bit of time in Central Asia near the Caspian, the Azeri teams Qarabag or FC Astanna are probably the best regional teams, with Aberdeen facing Qarabag, followed by Kairat who were beaten by Alashkert.
Anything is possible except for the fact that Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Armenia are definitely not Europe and a thousand miles from nowhere.
I think a comfortable aggregate victory is all we should expect, after all we’re no Euro super power ourselves. On paper it should be straightforward but in reality playing teams at any level who have everyone behind the ball is another matter. A congested penalty area sometimes means having to resort to long range shots and that’s certainly not been one of our strengths lately. I would expect 2-0 away at least and 4-0 at home but I’d obviously hope for something much more convincing.
All we need to do is win the tie in the first leg. 3-0 will do. Then we don’t need to drag the whole squad to Armenia for the second leg and can keep players fresh for the Ceptic game.
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