match thread (image) [FT] Union SG 2 - 0 Rangers

[Gonzo79 15,293]

They'll be a decent side.  Not world beaters but not walkovers either.

 

We've beaten better but lost to worse.  

[Uilleam 5,934]

2 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I very much expected that but they have started really well. They had very good results in pre-season and so far drew away to the team who finished 9th last season and beat Cherleroi who finished 6th last season. The team who finished 9th actually beat them at their own ground last season. So no signs of it so far.

Pre season results don't count.

 

 

[Gonzo79 15,293]

I know an English lady who regularly travels to see this Belgian side.  From what I gather, they have a similar appeal to that of St Pauli (trendy, with fans who have pictures of Che Guevara up in their bedsits).

 

Get intae them Rangers!  

[der Berliner 3,744]

A quick look at our squad can easily reveal who will play where in the front line. Colak will be the spear-head with Lawrence or Wright on the left (both left wingers by trade) and Matondo or Sakala (or makeshift Wright, pending on Matondo`s fitness and the willingness to play Sakala) on the right. Tillman plays down the middle, whether Gio trusts him from the word go is anyone`s guess though.

 

Obviously, Arfield is also an option in Europe.

Edited August 2, 2022 by der Berliner

[Uilleam 5,934]

Be afraid, be very afraid......

 

But we have nothing to fear, bar fear itself.

 

Union Saint-Gilloise’s fairytale makes for riveting read

Belgian minnows have come from nowhere to the brink of European football’s top table

Robert O’Connor

Tuesday August 02 2022, 12.01am, The Times

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/union-saint-gilloises-fairytale-makes-for-riveting-read-qrf8g5vg2

 

The history of Union Saint-Gilloise reads a little like two pages have been turned over at once. Twelve months ago they had just emerged from Belgium’s second tier and were preparing to play their first season in the top division in 48 years. Not content to sit and stabilise in the league, Union raced ahead, finishing runners-up to champions Club Bruges to set up their first season in Europe, which begins against Rangers tonight at the Den Dreef stadium in nearby Leuven.

The fairytale could have been more fantastical still. The team, which had remained largely the same as the one that won the second division at a canter, came first in the regular league table before finishing an agonising second in the four-way play-off for the title, undone by two defeats in three days to Bruges that toppled them from a position they had held virtually all season.

The runners-up prize could prove incalculably valuable. The lucrative group stages of the Champions League are two rounds of qualifiers away, yet expectations are realistic. Most of the Union squad have never played a competitive European fixture, and they begin against a team fresh from last season’s Europa League final. But there is a callow naivety written into Union’s DNA that, next to the weighty expectations on Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side to build on last season’s European run, could render Rangers’ visit to Belgium an unexpectedly tricky affair.

“Most of us bar one or two have never done anything of this magnitude, playing for a place in the Champions League,” says Christian Burgess, the Union defender. “But we play good teams in our league; Anderlecht, Bruges and so on. We’ve played Feyenoord and Sporting Lisbon in pre-season, we’ve played Brighton. It will be a step up in terms of occasion. Rangers are a good side, but we’re getting more used to that.

“We have massive underdog mentality. Our character means we relish these kinds of games. We played our best stuff of pre-season against Feyenoord’s first team. It was a massive boost to our confidence against a team that have just been in a European final.” Few in Belgium hold out much hope of Union repeating last season’s success. A consensus has been reached in the media that, with a small squad and modest resources, the added strain of European football will be a burden too far (they will drop into the Conference League if they lose to Rangers). Most predict a mid-table finish, with some bookies having the team that finished first in last season’s regular standings as seventh-favourites for the title.

 

It is not anything that is likely to trouble Union. Many of these players have been recruited from clubs playing in the second and third divisions of countries abroad — Burgess himself was recruited from League One side Portsmouth. For many, they have been given an unexpected second chance to add an exciting new chapter to the story of their careers. Among the sky-high stakes that typically accompany Rangers’ European campaigns, Union have a free pass.

“Rangers have a bigger pedigree, but they’ve also got a bigger squad and a bigger budget,” Burgess says. “They’ve just had an incredible run in Europe. They will be clear favourites. We’re also playing in a stadium we don’t call home in Leuven, but it will be a sell-out and it’s a decent pitch. We’re looking for any kind of result to take to Glasgow.

Burgess, whose grandmother is a Rangers fan, was playing in the English third tier before being scouted by Union two years ago

“I could argue that our naivety might help us. When something doesn’t go to plan and you can laugh at that, it helps you to take it in your stride. Our strength is in that there is no pressure on us. Not many people are expecting us to beat Rangers over two legs.

“But we’re an honest group and there are points to prove. We’ve got a lot of players who have come up from the lower leagues in their countries. If you’re used to a bigger club and better facilities and smoothness of travel, the pressure might affect you. But we just look at it and laugh and get on with it.”

 

There is still a sense of the surreal that pervades Union’s progress. Burgess is a case in point. Two years ago he was playing in England’s third tier, before he came onto the radar of Union’s data-driven scouting system. It has been a key feature of the club’s rise since the owner, Brighton chairman Tony Bloom, came onto the scene in 2018. For Burgess, the Champions League is one more unexpected twist on a mazy venture into the unknown.

“It’s brilliant for me,” he said. “My grandmother is from Glasgow, she’s a Rangers fan. I’ve got family and friends who are travelling up from down south. I’ll be able to understand all the players on the pitch, which is not something I’m used to any more. It’ll be nice to feel back home.

“I visited Glasgow once when I was a kid. She [his grandmother] is still very much Scottish in her mind, she’s proud of that part of her. She’s a little bit too old now to make it up there from Essex. She’ll have it on TV.

“If we get past Rangers and get to the group stage it will be unbelievable. I think it will be an even better story than if we’d qualified by winning the league. But it’s going to need quite an effort.”

 

[DMAA 3,658]

1 hour ago, Uilleam said:

Pre season results don't count.

 

 

Of course not, I’m only saying the early signs are that they are starting well. 

[Uilleam 5,934]

2 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Of course not, I’m only saying the early signs are that they are starting well. 

I'm trying to be positive! 

Let's neither over-estimate nor under-estimate this mob of chips and mayo munchers. 

 

Of course, if we haven't established superiority within 15 minutes this evening I could well be be in the Slough of Despond.

[buster. 5,186]

5 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Of course not, I’m only saying the early signs are that they are starting well. 

I watched the first half of their first league match (only played two)

 

It reminded me of Dundee Utd v Hibs.

Both teams were poor.

 

Apparently they improved a little in the second half.

[Frankie 8,562]

Butterflies now appearing for tonight! A shame Kent and others are unavailable but still enough quality in the squad to get a positive result. I suspect a more orthodox 4-3-3 with Kamara again perhaps tasked to break forward and support the attack.

 

Tillman impressed at the weekend but I think may be kept for later in the game. Hoping to see Yilmaz at some point depending on how the left side performs and option to use Wright and Sakala as well in attack. Won't be easy but best foot forward!

 

[buster. 5,186]

59 minutes ago, Frankie said:

 

 

Can see us getting hemmed in at times with that starting XI and there being a problem to move the ball forward under meaningful control. Colak would get isolated.

 

Had a glance at B365

Both teams are 17/10 to win the game. We are 2/5 on to get through.