SCOTTISH football aficionado Gerry Taylor (@thefurlongpole) shares his verdict on Thursday night's Europa League action between Antwerp and Rangers.
Antwerp v Rangers| Thursday 18th February 2020, 20:00 | BT Sport
When the draw was made for the knockout stages of the Europa League, Rangers would have been quite satisfied to have been pitted against the Belgians. The Great Old are currently sitting in second place in the Jupiler League, albeit 13 points behind runaway leaders Club Brugge.
The Gers have a fine away record recently in the Europa League, including a 2-0 win away to Standard Liege in Belgium in October. Indeed, Steven Gerrard's charges have a superb recent away record in Europe over the last two seasons they are: 11/21 for shutouts on the road since July 2018. The five away ties this season have saw the Teddy Bears ‘win to nil' in four.
Domestically, there have been less goals in the Ibrox sides games of late. In fact, 8/10 have saw Under 2.5. In seven of those matches the Gers have scored exactly one goal. Hence Skybet's 8/1 on the visitors winning 1-0 makes some appeal.
I'd also suggest an interest in the 2-0 away scoreline at 9/1 with the same bookie – as the visitors will be keen to take a lead with a clean sheet from this first leg. Ultimately they should be too strong for Franky Vercauteren's hosts.
James Tavernier, despite a couple of rare penalty misses, is available at 9/1 with Unibet for first goalscorer. He is still 9/11 from the spot this season, nine of those spot kicks have came along in the first half of games. He is also more than capable as also witnessed this term, of netting from free kicks or bagging a goal from open play. In total in Europe he is 5/8 for goals this season, whilst domestically the prolific ‘Tav is netting in 12/31.
Centre back Conor Goldson also has a good return for the Gers. In his third season now, he has scored a total of 16 goals, 10 of these have been away from home. Even more impressively he has netted in 3/9 starts in Europe this season. So the 20/1 Unibet are offering on him to be last goalscorer, is also perhaps worth a speculative couple of quid.
Best Bets
Antwerp vs Rangers – Rangers to win 1-0 (8/1 SkyBet)
Antwerp vs Rangers – Rangers to win 2-0 (9/1 SkyBet)
Antwerp vs Rangers – James Tavernier first goalscorer (9/1 Unibet)
Antwerp vs Rangers – Conor Goldson last goalscorer (20/1 Unibet)
