Rangers front up to a brand new Sporting challenge

THEY have both been bit by considerable financial problems and, in an occurrence not unrelated to these money troubles, both clubs saw their leading goalscorer leave in the last transfer window.

The fact Sporting Lisbon play in green and white hoops means no one should confuse Rangers for their opponents tonight. Yet there is the sense that these teams go into Europa League battle at Ibrox this evening beneath a shared cloud of uncertainty. It should therefore not be a tie which leaves Rangers feeling in any way inhibited.

The Portuguese footballing infrastructure has been shaken just as much as in Scotland. Indeed, Sporting Lisbon's home matches are currently taking place in front of sparse crowds of 20,000, which, in a steep-sided stadium that simply cries out to be filled to its 52,000 capacity, is a travesty. While Ibrox might also be some way short of full tonight it shouldn't be trepidation that keeps the fans away.

Yet, as a former Everton manager, Walter Smith will be alert to the fact that, after being narrowly beaten 2-1 at Goodison Park by the then in-form English club in the Europa League a year ago yesterday, Sporting went on to overturn the deficit with a handsome score of 3-0 in Lisbon.

Rangers won the away leg of their Uefa Cup encounter with Sporting three years ago, but, Smith conceded yesterday, the current team are not so adept at soaking up pressure.

Only one member of the back four who featured in the 2-0 win that night in the Estadio Jose Alvalade XXI will play tonight, with Sasa Papac the link. David Weir was suspended then although he will be back in his usual central defensive berth this evening. Madjid Bougherra will be by his side rather than Uefa Cup final partner Carlos Cuellar.

Smith, with his assertion that Rangers are less well equipped to absorb pressure, is probably referring more directly to the make-up of his midfield. Barry Ferguson has since departed, a player made for the job of retaining possession in fraught circumstances. With Lee McCulloch unavailable this evening - "arguably our player of the year this season," noted Smith yesterday - there is an additional absence of obvious grit in the middle of the park.

The Rangers manager is understandably hesitant about pitching in the teenage pair of Jamie Ness and Kyle Bartley, particularly in an area of the field patrolled by the vastly experienced one-time Rangers midfielder Pedro Mendes and the 33-year-old Portuguese former Champions League winner Maniche."We have lost a lot of players that gave us a capability of playing like that," said Smith, with reference to the counter-attacking style of 2008's Uefa Cup runners-up. "We have got different types of players. So we will just have to see if they can be used as successfully as the others.

"You have to use the players that you have got in the best way you can," he added. "For us, just now, we don't have a great deal of stability in our team. We have a situation where we have three players in on loan in January. (We have] to try to integrate them into the team. We have a whole different aspect (to our] play because of the staff we have got. So we might have to approach it in a different manner to what we did in the last campaign."

Smith admitted that Rangers' midfield is a "wee problem we have got". He noted the absence of a specialist player such as Brahim Hemdani, who, alongside Ferguson, helped bring such a calming influence to Rangers' play. This is a significant factor given that Sporting's strength, according to Smith, lies in midfield.

"They have got good players in that area of the pitch, that's the crux of where they go and play," he said. "We have younger boys. Kyle is only 19, so is Jamie Ness. Maurice Edu is older than them but (he] hasn't had a lot of games under his belt in the last few years due to injury, and the fact that he is a late starter being American.

"So we have a little bit of a lack of experience in that area of the pitch that we didn't have before, with experienced campaigners like Hemdani and Barry Ferguson. That's a wee bit of a challenge for the boys we have got."

A goal-less draw in the first leg at Ibrox proved a more than adequate platform for Rangers to build on the last time these sides met. Smith grinned when asked whether he would be tempted to be a bit more cavalier this time around. "I don't know," he said. "I might change it to 4-6 this time, as Craig (Levein] did." The mock threat referenced Scotland's formation against Czech Republic in October, but Smith's tactical approach might be shaped by the shortage of strikers at his disposal.

Nikica Jelavic is ineligible and top goalscorer Kenny Miller has left the club, a loss with which Sporting Lisbon can empathise having seen their Brazilian striker Liedson return home in December after scoring 117 goals in 214 games for the club.

But Rangers can turn to El Hadji Diouf, newly dyed blue strip of hair and all. He could, Smith confirmed, play up front on his own, although Kyle Lafferty is now fully fit after recovering from tonsillitis.

A decision on Steven Naismith, meanwhile, will be left until today. Smith must weigh up whether it is worth risking the player's hamstring tonight, with Celtic to come on Sunday in a pivotal league clash.

It is always possible that goals could come from other areas of the pitch, however.One did on that memorable night in Lisbon three years ago, when Steven Whittaker sealed the win with a thrilling slalom down the pitch after coming on as a substitute.

"When I picked (the ball] up I just turned and ran," the defender reflected yesterday. "A couple (of defenders] came at me from behind me but I think they had pretty tired legs. I was just trying to keep hold of the ball and keep the pressure off us. I found myself in front of goal. I just kept running straight."

The same could be said of Rangers, who, in yet another demanding season, will simply aim to keep going.