RB Leipzig vs Rangers Preview

Glasgow Rangers will look to continue their fairytale run in the Europa League this season when they travel to Germany this Thursday to face RB Leipzig in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League semi-final tie.

The German side come into this tie on the back of a disappointing 2-1 loss to Union Berlin in the German Bundesliga and so they will be looking to quickly get back to winning ways when they play Scottish Premiership defending champions.

Leipzig began the season in the UEFA Champions League but dropped down to this competition after a poor start to the season under former coach and current Leeds manager Jesse Marsch. Since dropping a level, they have bossed the Europa League winning all but one of their four games in the UEL while getting a lucky walkover result over Lokomotiv Moscow in the knockout round.

They defeated Italian side Atalanta 3-1 on aggregate in the last round to qualify for this round and have become one of the favourites to lift the trophy given that the remaining teams in this competition are relatively less experienced than they are, at least in recent times.

Led by the hot-shot Christopher Nkunku, Domenico Tedesco’s attacking side will come into this tie confident of getting a great result. But they will also want to be careful of their less-fancied opponents who defeated Borussia Dortmund in the knockout stage of the UEL.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side caused a great upset when they beat BVB 6-4 on aggregate in late February. Since then they also defeated Crvena Zvezda 4-3 on aggregate, after losing 2-1 in the first leg.

Their run in the Europa League this year has been truly remarkable and they will look to extend it with an excellent result in Germany on Thursday.

The Gers have been in good form, having lost just two of their last ten away games in all competitions (W7, D1) with both losses coming in this competition. They have also scored 2+ goals in six of their last ten away games and should be confident of grabbing one or two in this game.

They also have a decent record against German opponents with 17 wins, 15 draws and 17 losses in historic meetings with Bundesliga teams.

After beating one of the best teams in Germany at Signal Iduna Park, they will be confident of getting an excellent result at the Red Bull Arena.