Thursday, March 17, 2011

| by

0

17.03. (Thu) 21:05 Rangers - PSV Eindhoven

DID YOU KNOW?

* Rangers have the better of the head-to-head form between the sides. The Glasgow side are undefeated against PSV, winning three and drawing two of the five meetings since their first clash in 1978.

* The last Ibrox meeting between the sides came in the Champions League group stages in 1999. Rangers triumphed 4-1 on a night where Ruud van Nistelrooy scored for the visitors.

* The Ibrox faithful haven’t tasted a home defeat in 10 outings, their last loss on home turf coming at the hands of Celtic in the New Year Old Firm clash.

* The Gers' last foray in the competition took them to a 2008 final. Amazingly, Rangers only won twice on their run to the final, scraping through ties on away goals and penalties before going down 2-0 at the hands of Zenit St. Petersburg.

* Walter Smith’s side have drawn all three of their outings in this year’s competition.

* PSV are undefeated in eight matches. Their last loss was a home defeat to Eredivisie side Ado Den Haag, the visitors scoring in the final minute.

* After a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sibir Novosibirsk in the Europa League qualifying round, PSV have remained undefeated throughout the entirety of the competition. Avoidance of defeat at Ibrox would at the very least force extra-time, while a score draw would take the visitors through.

* In hot pursuit of an away goal, the visitors will take confidence from the fact they have scored in their last eight away matches.

* Fred Rutten’s side currently top the Dutch Eredivisie, a competition they haven’t won since 2008 having won four consecutive titles between 2004 and 2008.

* Hungarian midfielder Balazs Dzsudzsak is the club’s top scorer this season with an impressive 15 goals from midfield. The 24-year-old has six goals from his last eight games.

LAST MEETING

March 10, 2011: PSV Eindhoven 0-0 Rangers

A tame affair in the first leg saw each side only stomach one attempt on target and left the tie precariously poised for the Ibrox return.


PROBABLE LINE-UPS

Rangers: McGregor; Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac; Davis, Edu, Bartley, Naismith; Diouf, Lafferty.

PSV: Isaksson; Pieters, Bouma, Marcelo, Manolev; Engelaar, Hutchinson, Dzsudzsak; Lens, Berg, Toivonen.

Prediction

Rangers 1-1  PSV