Super Eagles duo of Leon Balogun and Joe Aribo would be looking forward to a good outing tonight as Scottish champions, Rangers travel to FC Malmo in the first leg UEFA Champions League qualifying group phase in Sweden.
The third round of the qualifying phase will see the Nigerians who have been part of Coach Steve Gerrard success last season to want to extend the winning run as they attempt to book a place in the final qualifying round late next month.
To reach this stage, Rangers secured a 2-2 second-leg draw with HJK Helsinki in the Finnish capital to go through 4-3 on aggregate and a trip to Malmo tonight will still give them the opportunity in the return leg at the dreaded Ibrox Stadium on August 10
The centre referee for the match is Szymon Marcinial from Poland and the Assistant referees are Pawel Sokolnick, Tomaz Listkiewicz and Tomasz Musial all from Poland
Malmo secured a 2-2 second-leg draw in the Finnish capital to go through 4-3 on aggregate.
Should Rangers beat Malmo over two legs, the Ibrox side would progress to the Champions League final play-off match, which is one step away from the group stages
Rangers ended their pre-season in impressive fashion, coming from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 in their final friendly ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Premiership opener.
Steven Gerrard’s side looked sharp and dangerous in attack throughout the first half. Summer signing Fashion Sakala carved out numerous chances in the opening 45 minutes, while Ryan Kent hit the underside of the crossbar.
However, it was Real Madrid who went in ahead after Rodrygo’s (8) early goal – their only shot of the opening period.
But ten minutes after the break, Sakala finally scored the goal he deserved (55), powering home past Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin and introducing himself to the Rangers fans in superb style.
The visitors’ evening was about to get worse too. Nacho was sent off for a second yellow (75), with Cedric Itten (77) firing a thunderous effort home two minutes later to seal a deserved victory for Rangers.
