Europa League preview: Rangers v Sporting Lisbon

RANGERS resume European activity this evening when they play host to a crisis-hit Sporting Lisbon side in the Europa League at Ibrox tonight.

The Portuguese club have just sold their free-scoring striker Liedson, whose loss sparked a rant about lies and deceit at the club from sporting director Costinha, who was promptly sacked.

Sporting will be forced to pin their goal-scoring hopes on the less prolific Helder Postiga, who did find the net twice at the weekend.

While many Rangers fans will keep an eye on their former favourite Pedro Mendes, it's Simon Vukcevic who is Sporting's real danger man in midfield.

The Montenegrin had a very public bust-up with manager Paulo Sergio last week but is still expected to start. Their other key attacking option in midfield, the Chilean Jaime Valdes, will miss both legs of the tie with an adductor muscle injury.

Rangers boss Walter Smith also has injuries in his threadbare squad to contend with. Midfielder Lee McCulloch will be out for this match and indeed most of the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery.

Also likely to be missing from the Rangers teamsheet is striker Steven Naismith, who has a hamstring strain.

With McCulloch out, Smith will be forced to field a midfield lacking in big-game experience. Teenagers such as Jamie Ness and Kyle Hutton could make a significant contribution alongside Maurice Edu.

On-loan pair Vladimir Weiss and Kyle Bartley are also in contention for a starting place after impressing in recent games.

While the backline of David Weir, Madjid Bougherra, Steven Whittaker and Sasa Papac is settled, in-form striker Nikica Jelavic is ineligible, meaning that El Hadji Diouf will likely lead the line in a 4-5-1 formation, with the flexibility to switch to 5-4-1 if required.

PROBABLE TEAMS...