Panathinaikos vs Rangers: The Preview
Rangers travel to Athens for the second leg of their tie with Panathinaikos. They hold a 2-0 lead from the first leg, can they get across the line?
This article was written for Scottishfootball.info by
, a Rangers fan and online sports writer, who has his own Rangers blog you can follow.Good evening all, Rangers face a decent sized ask tomorrow night, going away to a good footballing side for 90 minutes and holding onto a 2 goal lead. I don’t think this tie is over for a second, and neither will anyone in either team.
Igamane down
In terms of team news, it’s not ideal. Following a small injury picked up in a behind closed doors game ahead of the first leg, Thelo Aasgaard hasn’t been passed fit to play and won’t join the squad in Athens. I hope that we are severely edging on the side of caution with him, as much as we could do with his presence in midfield or even the front 3. Signing a new player and rushing him back from a small injury wouldn’t do us any good.
RM: “Thelo didn't quite make it, to risk him early on at this stage of the season would be crazy so we will make sure he is right.”
Another player who hasn’t made the squad is Hamza Igamane. The Moroccan was missing from Saturday’s friendly with a small issue and in similar fashion to Aasgaard, hasn’t recovered in time to make the trip to Greece. I think this is a serious miss, Danilo’s form in pre-season has been exceptional, but he doesn’t give you the variety that Igamane does. In truth, there’s no one in the squad who can impact the game in the way our number 29 can, that’s always going to be impossible to replace on short notice.
What does that mean for the lineup? Well I expect we won’t see a large number of changes from last week, even if I wouldn’t mind seeing Kieron Dowell left unattended in the baggage area at the airport.
Gassama played some decent minutes on Saturday, but I don’t think that Martin would ever reward a player with 3 goals in 3 games by returning him to the bench. Findlay Curtis has earned his place on the left, so unless Gassama comes in for Dowell, our French winger will bide his time like he did in the first leg.
Video: Findlay Curtis opens the scoring in the 1st leg, source: Rangers TV
A bit of cohesion is by no means a bad thing though, we saw that same XI play their way into the game at Ibrox. Let’s just hope they manage to do it without making us all sweat first.
Caution as compromise
When Russell Martin was given the job as Rangers manager, he made a few things clear in his opening press conference. One is that he has his philosophy and the clubs he manages have to match that, and two is that he knows you need to adapt when the situation demands it.
So we have a 2 goal lead to protect at a tough away venue in the searing heat, what do you think the manager said when asked about how his team would approach the game?
RM: “When you talk about the approach for this game, nothing changes.”
I don’t think this should be a surprise to anyone. In my post match review of the first leg, I spoke about Martin not compromising on his style and beliefs when the players were clearly struggling. We can’t go to the away leg and then decide we should be conceding the ball to a side we have to compete with.
As painful as it may be at times, we need to stick to that approach, especially in this kind of high pressure situation. The players need to believe that this way of playing can work for them in every game, big or small. And as many a fan will be keen to remark, you are expected to win every game at Rangers. There’s no better way to do that than by approaching every game with the same mentality.
Maverick and Goose
The crucial part of the pitch tonight, as it was in the first leg, will be the wide areas. In the first leg we saw the opposition create wide overloads consistently by taking advantage of the space left behind, with either the full backs inverting or the wingers getting caught too high up the pitch.
However, both goals came from our left winger holding their wide position while we played our way to them. There will be similar space available tomorrow night, and whoever starts on the left has to be disciplined and not come too close to the ball.
Video: Djeidi Gassama scoring the second in the 1st leg, 3 minutes into his debut. Source: Rangers TV
Panathinaikos are very keen to commit bodies to the press, especially when it looks like Rangers have limited options to play through. Remaining calm and playing through that pressure creates 1v1s for the wide players to take advantage of. Given the scoreline, we know that the Greek side will be on top of us from the first minute. The whole backline conspired to give the ball away on multiple occasions in the first leg, that really can’t happen here, especially not in the early stages of the game.
The home side won’t be compromising on their attacking and pressing approach, I don’t imagine the home crowd would let them anyway. Rangers have to harness that and use the ball well to take the sting out of the game. However, it’s in the early stages when the game will be at it’s most emotional for the home side, that it’s the perfect time to score.
On the other wing we have the proverbial Goose in this situation. While the left winger’s remit is about staying high and wide, ready to engage their full back 1 on 1 or step inside into the space vacated by an advancing midfield. The right winger seems to be encouraged to come inside and create combinations with the midfielder and fullback.
Kieron Dowell tried to do this on Tuesday without much success. If he starts as expected, his role may be extremely important in allowing us to retain possession and play our way down the right hand side of the pitch. A cool head providing an extra option in possession is invaluable in the expected heat of the game.
The main thing is, Rangers have a job to do, and progression would set us up very nicely for the next round of qualifiers. UCL money could be transformative, but we know how tall a task it is to get there. Safe travels if you are making the trip to Greece, and let’s hope the team can get the job done.
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