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Given what happened in Luxembourg two years ago, on the face of it last week's 2-0 home win over tonight's opponents should make Rangers fans feel more comfortable than we did before the 2017 loss. Yet Progrès showed enough defensive character and attacking threat at Ibrox last Thursday to ensure that anything other than a wholly committed and professional display from Rangers could cause us problems again tonight. Steven Gerrard was thus right to say in yesterday's press conference that works need to be done. Sure, as has been the case in most of our games to far this summer, Rangers dominated last week and should have won by more than the two goals we did score. Slackness in attack for the first 60-70mins resulted in good chances being missed whilst being too open in midfield, and with our use of the ball in defensive areas, could have cost us badly if it wasn't for poor finishing from the visitors late on. Once again Allan McGregor showed his worth in one-on-ones to avoid the loss of a crucial away goal. A two goal cushion it is though and that is a nice lead to take to the Grand Duchy. It does mean that Progrès need to be more expansive than they were at Ibrox and that should leave us more space to work with in attacking areas. Even so, I doubt the home side will go all out from kick off and I think the opening period may well be similar to last week's match. Hopefully that will allow us to settle well and allow us to retain possession to make it difficult for the Lux side to get back into the tie. An early goal for us would be a big help as well and would surely kill any threat of lightning striking twice against Progrès. The manager has already confirmed Steven Davis didn't travel so we're one important player down already. Add in a vital league opener at Kilmarnock on Sunday then Gerrard may well be pragmatic in his team selection and tactics tonight. That's not to say key players will be left out - that's very unlikely - but he may well stiffen up the side through the selection of guys like Kamara and Docherty, giving more licence to wide players such as Tav and, possibly Barisic too on the left, to stretch the game on the flanks. Given the impressive summer displays so far the manager certainly has plenty of options at his disposal. Injury aside I'd expect McGregor to start with Tav, Barisic, Goldson and one of Edmundson, Erlander and Katic forming the rest of the back four. It seems fairly clear Connor Goldson remains his first choice central defender with the other three offering excellent depth. Such quality also offers the option of a back three and it might not be beyond the realms of possibility to see that tonight. I'm happy for any of the four to feature. Moving into midfield and with Davis ruled out already that leaves a place up for grabs alongside likely starters Ryan Jack and Joe Aribo. Because we'll be keen to retain possession and use the ball well from deeper areas, we can expect Glen Kamara to retain his place from Sunday's friendly with Derby though we do have the option of using Scott Arfield further back. However, the Canadian's threat in attack with ability to support the striker and score goals himself should see him deployed just behind either Morelos or Defoe. That leaves a choice of several players for the other supporting role and that selection will depend on how confident the manager is. Does he opt for another creative player such as Ojo, Jones or Stewart? Or will he prefer the industry of Greg Docherty to help keep the door shut at the back and offer a box-to-box threat going forward? I suspect the latter but, again, it's good to be less predictable than we were for periods last season. Finally we have the striker role. Jermain Defoe has had a good summer and can be relied upon to find space, make good attacking runs and score goals in most games he plays. For that reason, he's a fine choice any time he plays. Yet, for me, Alfredo Morelos remains our best player and, despite all the transfer speculation, has shown already this season he's still focused on the job at hand. As such I'd be surprised if he didn't start tonight unless the manager wants to keep him fresh for Sunday. All in all, just like two years ago, we travel to Luxembourg as big favourites to win the tie. However, unlike two years ago, we have the experience of knowing Progrès aren't there to make up the numbers and will, at the very least, be well organised and carry a particular threat from set-pieces. We can ignore that at our peril or roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Let's hope it's the latter. Possible XI (4-3-2-1):

I think we are forgetting our experience of last season. After every game, no matter who referees, BBC Scotland's Michael Stewart will re-referee the match. Who will be the first Rangers player highlighted by Michael to be cited by the Compliance(Compliant) Officer this season?

... who was making his return after months in hiding after being caught lying about decisions made against Daniel Candeias. Trying to excuse him by claiming mere incompetence is in itself unacceptable.

The thing is, we will play a lot of teams like that & on poor surfaces in the league this year. I think tonight showed how much we depend on Morelos. Defoe simply doesn’t have the same physical presence, against what looked like decent centre halves. Morelos rolled them about when he came on. Sell Morelos and kiss goodbye to the title, is my verdict after tonight!

Pretty sure that it's just because he's several weeks behind in terms of fitness.

Someone at Rangers should be using the next presser to express disquiet at past refereeing and saying "measures" are now being taken to deliver the closest independent scrutiny of games involving certain referees.

This was almost a carbon copy of our last trip to luxemburg only this time we managed not to lose 2 goals....piss poor.

Half a coefficient point thrown away. Very ordinary performance. Will need to be better against the Danes.

I can't see anything other than convincing win tonight. Progres need to attack us and we'll sit deep, keep possession and wait for them to make mistakes, which they will. We're a very different side to the last one that made this journey. I don't expect a classic tonight, but it'll be fairly comfortable.

So he's not right and they aren't equally shite towards every team? Free reign is given to players to assault Morelos, for example, and Brown is given impunity to go about kicking players regularly without any action. There's no way that teams are refereed to the same standards.

Apparently there are links between Ashley and Desmond. He's apparently played golf with him in Barbados, he appointed one of his closest long term associates to the Sports Direct board. It seems every deal/contract Ashley tied Rangers into with the help of fraudsters like Green were designed to cause the ultimate harm to the club. £1 for the Ibrox naming rights, 7 year notice period, almost all profit for shirt sales going to SD. How isn't this a police matter? This isn't just a clever businessman this looks like a coordinated attempt to sabotauge Rangers' recovery.

How was it even legal for Charles Green to give 93% of the profits to Sports Direct? Isn't that obviously some type of fraud because he made no attempt to negotiate a deal which benefited us?

What a find that gif was

I strongly believe we’re better defensively when Katic plays. Genuinely wonder about Helmand. The fee seemed inexplicably low for a current Swedish international CB

At the end of the day, it was well documented last year that we were legally obliged to let Ashley match whatever deal we were offered. In theory the club couldn’t lose out either way. You have to wonder what bright spark thought we could just ignore this and hope SD wouldn’t notice. The same bright spark who reckoned Pedro Caixinha was the man to replace Mark Warburton, maybe..?

It's as if no one wants to be the player who puts the ball in the net. The urgency to pass to someone else when a shot at goal is possible is holding us back. On the plus side (and its a very big plus) we seem to have learned how to defend for the majority of games.

Time for a bit of pensioner power and to tell the council to get stuffed.

The last ten/fifteen minutes, we had three/four solid opportunities to finish it, and it was a lack of composure each and every time. I hope we have no injured players? Rugby Park will be much tougher.

I seen the start GS and you are correct. I would say that is worse than any surface in professional Scottish football though. It was like the surface down at crownpoint ffs. No matter though, we are through.

We're missing Morelos.

We are piss poor. As we were at Ibrox, for the most part. Sunday will be a struggle, on this showing.

Clever move to take off Barisic, a red card is easily the biggest risk for us

It took until the 35th minute before we forced their keeper into a save. The only time we worked their keeper in the entire 45 minutes. We are not getting in behind Progres, we are playing in front of them. I suspect the surface is not the best; however, surely we can move the ball quicker, particularly when moving between their lines? Barisic has been cautioned, been involved in another couple of minor incidents since. Prudent management would suggest we substitute him before a situation is manufactured.

Well that's 45 minutes of my life I wish I had spent doing something else. This is barely a training session for us. I know Progres are packing the midfield but we could play through them quicker. We started to do that in the last 10 minutes. Before that I felt we hadn't even got into second gear.

Cheats’ main tactic is to get one of our players sent off by the looks of it

This mob haven’t lost more than 2 goals in their last 15 European games , stuffy I think best describes them .

You need a licence to broadcast radio in the UK, Ofcom manages the process and they're not expensive (a few hundred pounds) if you want to broadcast using DAB. However, you do need to know what you're doing technically, you'll need kit and an engineer at least to set up broadcasts from the ground(s). You also need to buy access to a satellite so the broadcast reaches the radios of those listening, I've no idea what that costs. The big thing needed is the agreement of the SPFL and the SFA, without their agreement nothing can happen. I don't know if the BBC have exclusive radio rights, certainly the fact no other radio station broadcasts commentary suggests they do. If that was the case the whole thing is moot anyway. I'd be very surprised is the club haven't explored this. A Rangers specific radio station, broadcasting interviews, previews, match commentary and the like would do pretty well I suspect and could use the existing content being created for Rangers TV already. As I said I'd be surprised if they've not explored this. Maybe someone like 4 Lads would know.

I'd be happy with that team. Aribo looked very good in the more attacking role against Derby so it may even be an option to swap him with Docherty there and move Kamara to the left side. I suspect that he'll stick with one the attacking midfielders in the position though, probably Ojo.

Noted that Davis will be missing and took the time and copied the chaps we have A- and B-listed at UEFA for this round. Just to know who is actually available: Rangers in Europe – Squad List 2019-2020 Goalkeepers McGregor, Firth, Foderingham (plus: Wright, N. Hogarth, Kinnaer, Budinauckas, J. Hogarth) Defenders Tavernier, Edmundson, Helander, Goldson, Katic, Polster, Barisisc (plus Wilson, Breen, Thomson, Houston, Mayo, Finlayson, Patterson, Miller, McClelland, O'Connor, Muir, Devine, Henderson) Midfielders Jack, Davis, Ojo, Halliday, Kamara, Docherty, Stewart, Barjonas, Arfield (plus Butterworth, McKechnie, McPake, Williamson, Dickson, McKinnon, Lowry) Forwards Defoe, Aribo, Morelos, Jones (plus Dallas, Rudden, Mebude, Kennedy, Yates, Lyall) Not in current list (but previously) Goalkeepers Alwnick Defenders McCrorie Midfielders Kelly, Palmer Forwards Hastie, Shiels https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2020/clubs/club=50121/squad/

No he is, right and they are crap for all. But, I'd argue they're worse for us.

https://themanthebheastscanttame.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/is-dermot-desmond-fit-and-proper-part-1-dermot-desmonds-tax-case-part-1-the-aviva-stadium/ Quote below from this piece Here's the piece he references in the quote above https://themanthebheastscanttame.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/operation-e-u-tree/ And a couple of quotes from it here He goes on to document a number of business links between Desmond and McCreevy and then he says I don't know the details of this, what are the facts behind him saying Ashley is in Desmond's "band of merry men"? It's proof of nothing but still worrying stuff given what seems coordinated and obsessive sabotauge of Rangers Football Club by Mike Ashley. Seems to me that the line that "we crossed him and he doesn't like being crossed" might just be the perfect cover story for him.

Viva Espanyol. The last time Rangers played Barcelona in the Champions League, I attended with the other estimated 25,000 Rangers supporters. My hotel was just west of the Placa de Catalunya, the northern side of the square had the biggest el Corte Ingles department store. It dominated the entire side of the square, a several floor department store. Given there was a Barca FC club store situated on the west side of the placa, I was surprised to find el Corte Ingles had an entire floor given over to FC Barcelona. I asked at information where I could purchase FC Espanyol merchandise? I was directed to the second basement floor, to the Haberdashery Department. There were two carousels selling key rings, lighters, and pens in Espanyol colours. The Catalans had decided to ignore a football club that regularly attracted in excess of 40,000 supporters. Today's BBC Ceefax has twelve pages on this evening's matches involving British clubs in European action. Two and three page coverage of Crusaders against Wolves, Aberdeen versus Chikhura, Linfield's tie with Torshavn, and Nomads second leg with Partizan Belgrade. There is no preview of Progres against Rangers. Just another example of the BBC taking our dosh and providing little or no service in return. We are confined to the key ring carousel.

Why do SoS think that the agreement will be binned after we pay the £3m? Surely it will still be in place and we are just £3m down?

I think the new deal is open-ended. ?

Yes -- just randomly found; with our three gersnet usernames on it... It took me at least 5 minutes to make.

Don't think anyone will be buying Kent at Liverpool's 10m asking price, and he's not going to play for them either, so bit of a stalemate really. He's been a bit of a footballing nomad the last three years, five clubs i think ,and from his perspective maybe he just wants to be settled somewhere,.. i know i would.

If selling Morelos meant we could sign Kent permanently, I'd rather keep Morelos.

I suspect come Aug 31 if he hasn't been sold liverpool may change their mind.

Just finished listening to it, another good listen thanks to all. And well done to @D'Artagnan on your debut.

The point about having our own radio commentary is an excellent one. I think it could be key to future relationships with the BBC.

Thanks for that insight!!! Its useful to read the facts rather than rely on my own experience of it. A lot of that really surprised me. I've just asked the kids who are now in their twenties and they said that neither they nor their friends would ever listen to radio at all, but it just shows a lot of young people still are. You are right that the younger ones get everything they need through YouTube channels and similar. On your last point about a Rangers radio station for commentary, I wonder how possible/difficult that would be. I have RTV and it's transformed my enjoyment of watching our away games. If the commentary was available somehow free of charge via a radio station I am certain it would be successful. There is however one stage next year when I would want to tune in to the BBC football radio station whatever that is, and that's when we win 55. I just want to hear the pain in their voices.

Anyone who wants to fly a flag in their garden is generally a roaster anyway, whatever that flag is. Offensive? no, not at all. Ridiculously tacky looking? absolutely.

Good work from the group in this case - a real shame that progress can't be made for those fans that reply on the BBC for live radio coverage in particular.

You hope.

Well, the problem is that his original contract was essentially massively leeching money away from the club. Methinks we got a better deal with SD after some debate, but then we decided to whip up a new deal without the consent of SD. And the latter bit is what we talk about above, don't we? One may call it amateurish or the like, but I would assume that those who did it on our side were sure that it worked ...