Rangers v Standard Liege: Is it on TV, who to watch, form guide, Europa League odds, last match

Rangers can seal Europa League progression on Thursday night by avoiding defeat against Standard Liege at Ibrox.

Standard's Zinho Vanheusden and Kemar Roofe fight for the ball (Photo by BRUNO FAHY/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

Steven Gerrard’s team has had the group firmly within its grip since the opening match against the Belgians and could already be safely in the knock-out stages with European football after Christmas guaranteed had it not been for two late concessions in the two games against Benfica.

However Rangers need only a point, as do the Portuguese to ensure one of the top two places in Group D and will be eyeing up a similar result to the one achieved in the Belgian downpour on matchday one – made memorable by Kemar Roofe’s halfway-line wonder goal in injury time.

Match details

Who: Rangers v Standard Liege

What: UEFA Europa League – Group D

Where: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

When: 8pm, Thursday December 5

Scott Arfield is in a rich vein of form for Rangers. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

How to watch

BT Sports will again show the both Scottish representatives in the group stages of the Europa League, kicking off their coverage at 5.30pm with Celtic’s trip to AC Milan preceding Rangers’ match with Standard Liege which follows on BT Sport 3 (Sky channel 413) at 8pm.

Viewers with an EE mobile phone could be able to tune in free with an offer from the company, by texting SPORT to 150.

Alternatively Rangers TV will be offering audio coverage via their subscription packages.

Alfredo Morelos. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Who to Watch

Collins Fai caught the eye on the opening of the group and he has kicked on despite Standard’s indifferent form. So too has Nicolas Raskin who missed the first meeting through COVID isolation.

Thomas Buffel has warned Rangers to beware Morroccan Mehdi Carcela-González but there’ no question the Belgian’s star man remains Zinho Vanheusden who Inter Milan are monitoring carefully.

Opposition Form

Things have not gone well for Standard since Rangers defeated them and ended their European home record. They’ve won just once domestically, and only have one other – last week’s late winner against Lech Poznan to show since. There have been plenty of draws though.

Previous Meetings

Liege are the only team from Belgium to beat Rangers – winning 4-1 at the Stade Schisson in 1962. Rangers won the return 2-0 at Ibrox but went out on aggregate.

Of course Rangers won the October match 2-0 thanks to James Tavernier’s penalty and Kemar Roofe’s wonder-goal.

Other meetings with Belgian sides have seen wins over Anderlecht 5-2 and 2-0 in 1959 and a home win over Club Brugge in the 1992-93 Champions League group stage coupled with a 1-1 draw in Belgium.

Odds

Rangers 4/9 (bet365 / BetVictor) Draw 9/2 (bet365) Standard Liege 6/1(bet365)

First goalscorers include James Tavernier 15/2 (Boylesports), Ryan Kent 7/1 (Boylesports) and Alfredo Moreos 4/1 (bet365)

Rangers are 21/20 (Boylesports) to score a goal in each half.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.