Athletic Club vs Rangers preview: Basque in the glow

Morning everyone, the day of reckoning has arrived. Rangers have to go to San Mamés and either win in 90 minutes or take the game to it's maximum length and win on penalties. Both are herculean tasks given the quality of opposition.

The organisation demonstrated by Rangers in the first leg was immense at times, that will be even harder to replicate given we've lost Dujon Sterling to injury. The Englishman was a crucial part of the flexibility in the back 3, his recovery pace and comfort defending in wide areas allowed the Rangers backline to sit higher up the pitch.

How do we replace that? On paper the closest change for him would be to have Tavernier drop into that slot and play Ridvan as the wing back on the right. Just like the first 60 or so minutes of Fenerbahce away. That strategy worked very well that day, although not as physically robust as Sterling, Tav's passing ability makes him an extremely useful outlet when we are in possession. A negative factor of this approach is that it forces Ridvan to play on his wrong side, which can force the team back when under pressure.

Our second option is to use Clinton Nsiala on the left of the back 3 and moving Balogun/Souttar to the right. Nsiala had a very strong run in the team right up until Barry's first game in charge when he was hooked off in the first half. There were questions about his physicality after the St Mirren home loss, in which he was frankly bullied by the Buddies forwards. The Frenchman started Sundays game at Pittodrie and looked back to his assured self in a team performance that was honestly a bit all over the place. I think he could definitely contribute tonight, I wouldn't be against him starting, especially when Ridvan looked very comfortable on the left in the first leg. If your missing one part of the team, you should try and replace that while disrupting as little of the team as possible.

Outside of the backline, the team really picks itself given who we have available. Diomande will return to the starting line-up. Given Bailey Rice's injury in the first leg and the fact he started over Barron, I think Diomande could start alongside Raskin with Hagi ahead of them. Hagi was immense in the first leg and contributed at the weekend, he might be on his way out in the summer but I think he deserves the start.

In the front line Vaclav Cerny will definitely start, given he was rested at the weekend we will likely see Cyriel Dessers over Igamane. Which I think is a shame as the Moroccan was a one-man battering ram at the weekend and his ability to hold the ball up and carry it forward is something no one else has in this team.

The main topic of discussion around the home team is the fact that Iñaki Williams is an injury doubt. This is a shock because the endurance of the Ghanaian is legendary. He once had a run of 251 consecutive La Liga appearances. It could be mind games from Athletic Club, but I think more likely even if he went off at the weekend having lost a leg, the team would back him to pull through and start.

Athletic Club's attacking approach in the first leg was certainly more limited than we'd seen from them previously. I had mentioned their recent poor goal=scoring form in my preview and I think we saw the symptoms of that at Ibrox. Once Rangers' fullbacks had limited the Williams brothers, the Basques seemed to run out of attacking ideas until they introduced Berenguer who caused the backline some issues with his direct runs from wide positions.

Given their injury concerns and his impact at Ibrox, I'd be surprised if we didn't see Berenguer from the start. His penalty miss aside, his relentless runs off the ball will be very difficult for the back 5 to deal with.

Going forward tonight our greatest hope will be relying on some magic from Cerny to produce a goal. I expect he will be the only pace in the team with no Igamane, so no pressure Vaclav.

Aside from that there's not too much to analyse that will be dissimilar from the first leg. The atmosphere is flipped and Rangers will need to try silence the crowd by being resolute. Our Celtic Park approach will be key here, go a bit direct, get territory and immediately start taking our time over throw ins and set pieces.

Safe travels to those who've made the trip to Bilbao. Don't forget they speak a different dialect there. Let's hope for some European magic tonight from this team.