Midtjylland vs Rangers Predictions

Will Steven Gerrard’s spell at Rangers bring another run to the group stage of the Europa League? The Gers were brilliant under his leadership in Europe last term, while he has inspired more strong displays this summer. However, will that continue as the Gers head into this midweek trip to Midtjylland? They are up against it in a tough meeting with the Danish side, but Gerrard has shown impressive European nous so far. Can his men gain a result here to set them up for next week’s home leg?

For Midtjylland, they know they have to make the most of this first leg clash before they head to Ibrox. However, the hosts have struggled in European clashes in recent years. They’ve only made the group stage of the Europa League once, while last term they were dumped out by Malmo at this stage. That makes them outsiders as they prepare to face a Rangers side who are looking much improved in European competition.

The visitors have kicked off their league campaign after they saw off Kilmarnock at the weekend. That continued some strong form to start off 2019/20, as Rangers have won three of their last four matches. Overall this summer the Gers have won seven of nine matches across all competitions. They’ll be aiming to channel that momentum into this clash, while the focus for Rangers will to be to get away from Denmark with a solid result which they can build on at home.

Rangers were unbeaten across their eight qualifiers in 2018, which saw the club dig in for some strong defensive displays in a bid to keep themselves in the competition. Most notable was their final qualifier at Ufa, where they clung on to a 2-1 aggregate lead with just nine-men. On the road Rangers secure three draws and a win in qualifying, while grinding out results has been the norm for them in 2019 too.

The visitors have been solid in Europe so far, keeping clean sheets in both matches on the road. They hammered St Joseph’s 4-0 in the first round, but their last trip saw a 0-0 draw with Progres Niederkorn. After that result, almost of third of Gerrard’s European games as a manager have finished 0-0. He’ll be confident of keeping another clean sheet, as the Gers are yet to concede in the qualifiers this summer. They’ve now kept clean sheets in 75% of their European qualifiers under Gerrard. With seven of their eight qualifiers last summer seeing under 2.5 goals, we expect something similar here. The last round brought two low scoring results against Progres, so the Gers haven’t moved far from the style which has brought them success. Under 2.5 goals seems to be a solid bet given that record.