Rangers vs St Josephs FC Predictions

Steven Gerrard’s Rangers continue their bid to make the group stage of the Europa League once again on Thursday night, as they play the second leg of their first-round qualifier. They went all the way 12 months ago, finding their way through tricky qualifying clashes in order to make the group stage. That’s huge for a club like Rangers who have big ambitions for the coming season. However, can they add some gloss to a comfortable win over the side from Gibraltar?

Rangers were 4-0 winners in the first meeting between these two, which means they’re all but through now anyway. The Gers have a commanding lead over St Joseph’s, but they are unlikely to use that in order to rest players. With little in the way of preseason friendlies, the Gers are relying on these games to get their players up to speed, while they need to get minutes under their belt with a potentially tricky clash to come in the next round.

The visitors have already had to come through a Europa League preliminary clash, but that didn’t help them when it came to hosting the Glasgow giants. Drawing a blank, shipping four away goals and facing this trip means that the visitors are all but out. All they really have left is the experience of this trip to Ibrox, but there’s next to no chance of seeing a colossal turnaround in this one. Instead, we expect a strong Rangers side to make short work of the away team.

The Gers were solid on their way to the group stage last season, keeping clean sheets in their opening three games. They should do that here against a side who have won just one match in the Europa League. There’s an obvious gulf in class between these two, as shown in the away leg last week. Given that Rangers need to take this second leg at Ibrox seriously, there should be another high scoring victory on the cards for Gerrard’s side. We’re backing them to claim a win with a -3 handicap, which means we expect Rangers to win by at least four clear goals in this second leg meeting.