Jagiellonia vs Rangers Predictions
Jagiellonia welcome Rangers to Chorten Arena for the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying-round tie.
The Polish hosts have made a perfect start to their domestic campaign, while Rangers were unconvincing in their Premiership opener.
I have my stake on the hosts to win or draw, while BTTS also looks likely on Thursday.
Competitive Contest Tipped in Poland
- Jagiellonia scored 1+ goals in 13 of their last 14 matches
- Jagiellonia have seen BTTS in 4 of their last 6 matches (European qualifiers)
- Jagiellonia are unbeaten in 12 of their last 14 matches (European fixtures)
- Rangers have seen BTTS in their last 9 matches (competitive fixtures)
- Rangers scored 1+ goals in 16 of their last 17 matches (competitive fixtures)
- Rangers failed to win 5 of their last 6 matches (competitive fixtures)
Jagiellonia and Rangers Set For First Competitive Meeting
Jagiellonia and Rangers will meet for the first time in Thursday’s Europa League third round qualification contest.
Rangers are ranked 49th in UEFA’s club coefficient standings, while Jagiellonia begin the season in 86th position.
Jagiellonia Maintain Perfect Start
Jagiellonia come into Thursday’s contest after collecting six points from their opening two Ekstraklasa fixtures.
Adrian Siemieniec’s side began the new season with a narrow 1-0 home victory against Korona Kielce before a 2-1 victory at Motor Lublin last Friday.
Sergio Lozano’s 85th-minute goal ensured a positive start to the season for Bialystok.
The hosts finished third in the Ekstraklasa last season and have now claimed victories in ten of 12 unbeaten fixtures since the start of May.
The Poles enjoyed an excellent run in the Conference League last season, reaching the Conference League knockout phase. Jagiellonia lost only two of 14 games played in the competition, with a 4-2 win at Fiorentina the highlight of their campaign.
Rangers Held at Tannadice
Rangers travel to Poland after beginning their Premiership campaign with a disappointing 1-1 draw against Dundee United in Derek McInnes’ first competitive match in charge.
McInnes’ side fell behind to Lachlan Rose’s first-half goal before Thelo Aasgaard’s fine second-half strike secured a point at Tannadice.
After a lacklustre opening period, the Gers improved during the second half but lacked quality in the final third as they failed to find a winning goal.
Final xG totals of 1.46 and 1.64 reflected the evenly balanced nature of the contest.
The Glasgow giants endured a miserable end to last season’s campaign. Rangers finished third in the Premiership after losing four successive matches before a 5-2 win at Falkirk on the final day of the campaign.
An inability to keep clean sheets continues to prove costly for the Gers. Rangers conceded at least one goal in their last nine competitive fixtures, with at least two goals leaked in seven of those contests.
Jagiellonia vs Rangers Team News
Jagiellonia: (4-4-2) Slawomir Abramowicz; Norbert Wojtuszek, Bernardo Vital, Yuki Kobayashi, Guilherme Montoia; Rodrigo Conceicao, Taras Romanczuk, Sergio Lozano, Kajetan Szmyt; Jesus Imaz, Nik Prelec.
Head coach Siemieniec is likely to retain faith with much of the same side that secured victory against Motor Lublin.
Record signing Anders Klynge made his debut from the bench last week and is pushing for his first start.
The hosts have no reported injury issues.
Rangers: (4-3-3) Ivor Pandur; Ross McCrorie, Dujon Sterling, Emmanuel Fernandez, Tuur Rommens; Mohamed Diomande, Cameron Devlin, Dan Neil; Thelo Aasgaard, Youssef Chermiti, Lawrence Shankland.
Rangers boss McInnes will be forced into at least one change to his selection.
Summer signing Ben Godfrey suffered a hamstring injury at Dundee United, and will miss Thursday’s contest. Dujon Sterling could move into central defence alongside Emmanuel Fernandez, with Ross McCrorie likely to start at right-back.
Djeidi Gassama and Ryan Naderi are expected to drop out after ineffective displays in the draw at Tannadice.
Belgian international Nicolas Raskin has returned to training and has been included in Rangers' Europa League squad.
McInnes expressed his disappointment after dropping points against Dundee United last weekend.
"We worked hard to get back into it, but I don't think we were good enough to win the game.
"I thought the point was the right scoreline and we're disappointed with that."