DMAA

So many positives. Patterson, Zungu, Hagi and Itten were more or less coming in from the cold tonight and you couldn’t tell. They were all very good. It’s hard to believe how well things are going for us just now.

Absolutely delighted. What a stunning achievement.

Absolutely.

Stands out every game in Europe. It’s almost as though tougher opposition suits him.

Very pleasing half all things considered. You will always lose something with Tavernier dropping out, but Patterson has looked great. Zungu has looked good, albeit maybe just a little bit more likely to make a mistake than Davis. Itten has been great. I’ve been saying for a while I wish he would get more game time, I have to say from what we’ve seen tonight I’m not seeing why he hasn’t been given more opportunities over Morelos. He has won the ball working way back into our half too.

Benfica have gone with their strongest 11. Would be a bit disappointing to lose out narrowly by putting out a weaker team when our competitors aren’t doing the same. Finishing 2nd means losing out on half a million or so and getting a very hard draw in the next round.

I'm actually quite pleased with the line-up. I'm pleased Hagi and Itten are getting a chance. I'm disappointed Roofe isn't on the bench though. Luckily Lech Poznan have held up their end of the bargain and made extensive changes too, so we can go into the game with confidence.

Wow, what a night for Patterson!

I think we'll go with, Mcgregor Tavernier Goldson Balogun Barisic Arfield Zungu Kamara Hagi Kent Roofe I don't know, I just don't see how anyone other tham Zungu and Hagi could be brought in here. Barisic was rested at the weekend, and the rest of the defence chooses itself. We know Zungu is starting, Arfield was rested at the weekend so he will come in. Kamara won't drop out as Aribo played on Sunday too. And then of the front 3, if Hagi comes in it's anyone's guess who for but I would hope Morelos and not Roofe.

Under the stewardship of another European football wizard....

1-2 Rangers Roofe

I have seen suggestions that it was Rangers who spotted his performance for Colombia's youth team and orchestrated his move to Finland, possibly to because it is easier to get visa/work permit there. Probably nothing in it.

I think that narrative would actually work against us because I think they would normally be totally complacent, but Gerrard being in the other dugout would mean they would take the game very seriously to avoid the embarrassment of losing to him.

Great to hear Helander is aiming to be back for the weekend. If he had been affected by COVID I don't think he would be in contention yet so that is very good news. It will be a big boost to have him back because we are in a bit of a precarious situation potentially having to ask Bassey to play there until he is.

Don’t know but I imagine it’s a better place to scout than the League 2/Conference League where most SPFL stars were signed from.

Both these make for good reading for Rangers. Not so much for Celtic. Love that Zander Clark basically put in his first decent performance of the season at Celtic Park

Well that’s those 10 fixtures played now. They failed the test this tough block of fixtures presented them with and we very much took the opportunity to press home our advantage. They enter an easier run of fixtures now which give them the perfect opportunity to get their act together and, arguably, the inverse is true of our fixtures. Some pretty tough fixtures lie ahead before we play Celtic.

That run of games is pretty much equivalent to the run they’ve just had. A series of tough tests.

For me the big worry is the same as last season, players being unavailable. Last season we had terrible luck after the winter break, this season we have the threat of COVID too. I think we are already suffering a wee bit from Helander being absent, I’m a huge fan of his and I think we conceded chances yesterday we probably wouldn’t have if he was playing. So there is plenty reason to be cautious because the risks are greater.

Behave ?

Funny thing is if you compare our season so far to the same stage last season there isn’t a whole lot in it. In terms of points, the difference is just the old firm game, we won it away instead of losing it at home. So a 3 point difference. Goal difference was 35 instead of 42. Most of that difference was goals conceded. Even in Europe our performance has been almost the same, the big difference being the loss away at Young Boys, but we haven’t played our third away game yet this season so you can’t make a direct comparison yet. Yet I think we have reason to believe that the small differences are very significant. The fact we are barely conceding goals domestically is significant. The manner of our old firm performance in stark contrast to last season. The fact that our bench and reserves are so much stronger, we are making 5 changes and there is no drop in quality. Lots of reasons to be optimistic.

Winning the group would give us a great chance of progressing. Second place would make it very hard.

They’ve conceded 2 more than Dundalk