Rangers vs Olympique Lyon match preview: A European night at Ibrox

Afternoon all, Rangers are back in European action tonight, it's our third meeting with Lyon in recent times and it will no doubt be a tough game.

Thankfully we will have a full Ibrox to call upon to back the team, it goes without saying that this is a crucial time to be back home, especially because we have 3 points from our first fixture to build on.

I was at Ibrox for the last home fixture against Lyon, they were managed by Peter Bosz and had been on a shit hot start to the season. Gerrard was still in charge and we'd had an up and down start to the season. We got absolutely spanked 3-0 and lost Ryan Kent to injury.

I remember thinking that Lyon team looked really good and would be one of the favourites for the competition. So imagine my surprise when I checked in on them later on that season and they were in the pits with no wins in 10 games. It still bemuses me to this day that they took such a downturn in form that season. (They were eventually knocked out by West Ham in the quarter final)

But this is a much changed side since then, they've had some serious ups and downs. They were on relegation form for most of last season and then managed a fantastic run in the second half of the season to finish 6th. They sit in 11th place so far this season despite investing over 100m in the summer. I think we can safely say this isn't the most consistent side in the competition.

We will have to see which Lyon team turns up tonight, but I believe that if we replicate the organisation and discipline of the Malmo game then we should back ourselves to add to the French side's misery.

I think my main concern would be if Tav started up against Wilfried Zaha. We know what he can do 1v1 and Tav has struggled against the majority of wingers he's faced this season. Actually all of their wide options are great 1v1, so let's just hope we are protecting Tav. As much as Cerny has struggled in the final third recently, he's actually been very diligent in his tracking back, but I wonder if the manager might go for Dujon Sterling off the right for a bit more security.

Which brings us nicely onto the news that Dujon Sterling has signed a new Rangers deal till 2028. He's someone the manager rates highly and he's shown a real willingness to work for the team and play where he's needed. I like Sterling and he's a proper physical ball winner whose got a real power to him when he drives with the ball. But I think it would be really good to see how he can actually play at right back, even though he was signed as Tav cover, he's actually played way more in every other position on the park it feels like. I do wonder if the loan signing of Kasanwirjo means that Phil sees his future filling in across the midfield and out wide. One thing is clear though, he has a future here, there's also a lot of talk about his leadership qualities and how big a presence he is in the dressing room, it's a good move keeping players like that around.

Moving on from someone signing a new contract to someone coming in like-a-new-signing, Ianis Hagi is back in the first team fold. Not subtly either, the club tweeted it out which surprised me. I already published my thoughts on the Hagi situation earlier in the season, I was very much for him being used since we have him till atleast January. It seems like the club has been able to come to some kind of agreement around the wage rise issue and he's now in the first team squad. We won't see him tonight though as he's not in the European squad, but hopefully we get to see him and assess his current level at the weekend.

There wasn't too much to report from the press conferences, but Phil was very keen to stress that as a team we will be going into the game looking for 3 points and nothing less. Nice to hear and hopefully reflected in the approach tonight.

That's all for today, sorry for getting this one out later than usual, safe travel to all attending the game.