Champions League
2010-11-24 - Rangers vs Manchester United
A Sports Betting Pick by FootyGaffa
Ibrox Stadium
Football : European Champions League
Wednesday 24th November -7.45pm KO
RANGERS
Rangers go into this match knowing that realistically they must achieve 2 wins from their remaining games if they want to reach the next stage of the competition. Of course this is asuming that Valencia beat the pointless Bursaspor in Spain tonight.
Rangers have had a change in form this year in the Champions League having lost all home games last year they have been unbeaten this year in the competition at home. In fact Rangers have actually only lost one game at home in 2010.
Walter Smith though has big headaches through injuries to overcome. Algerian, Bougherra is a big out at centre half and Kirk Broadfoot will have to come in to partner the aging Davie Weir in the middle with Whittaker moving back to left back. But for me the biggest miss will be Edu in midfield as there is no natural replacement here which may force Walter to change his usual 4-5-1 formation.
I reckon he will bring in Weiss wide on the left, have Mcculloch play the holding role in the middle and play Lafferty in an advanced role supporting Kenny Miller upfront (so more 4-4-2). There are also question marks over Papac at righback but Foster will fill in here if needed.
Rangers main threat will come from the ability of Naismith and Weiss to get forward from wide areas to feed Miller. Although Miller hasn't scored in Europe this season he has scored 18 in the league this year and is red hot.
As always there should be a great atmosphere at Ibrox tonight and with the admitedly boring 0-0 at Old Trafford I expect to see a much more open game as Rangers must push for a victory.
Possible Rangers Lineup : McGregor, Whittaker, Broadfoot, Weir, Papac(Foster), Weiss, Davis, McCulloch, Naismith, Lafferty, Miller
Manchester United
Man Utd are sitting pretty at the top of the group knowing that they only need a point from the remaining fixtures to secure qualification to the next stage.
Although, if I was SAF I would ponder which is the easier fixture, Rangers away or a last game against Valencia at home! With this in mind I expected Man Utd to field as strong a team as possible to secure the points but Sir Alex too has his own injury problems and surprisingly is opting to possibly rest a few.
So no Rio or Vidic at the back with Smalling and Evans likely replacements.Fletcher has a slight knock a looks to be missing from midfield. However it does seem from all the press conferences that Rooney will play upfront, but I suspect this will be on his own with a 5 man midfield behind.
Manchester United's away form in the Champions League on paper looks impressive but we all know that drawing the away games domestically has been an issue this season for them.
Possible Manchester United lineup :
Kuszczak, Rafael, Evans, Smalling, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Park, Obertan, Rooney
PREDICTION
I think Sir Alex was a little bit red faced that his reserve team didn't get the win on matchday 1 but tonight we will see a far sharper performance form Man Utd leading to a comfortable but not resounding win.
If you were to ask who will win a match between the top of the SPL and the top of the EPL......
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FORM
Rangers
Match Day 1: Manchester United 0-0 Rangers
Match Day 2: Rangers 1-0 Bursaspor
Match Day 3: Rangers 1-1 Valencia
Match Day 4: Valencia 3-0 Rangers
Manchester United
Match Day 1: Manchester United 0-0 Rangers
Match Day 2: Valencia 0-1 Manchester United
Match Day 3: Manchester United 1-0 Bursaspor
Match Day 4: Bursaspor 0-3 Manchester United
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Ranger 0-2 Manchester United
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take a Man Utd win @ 1.5 (MAIN BET)
