Situation: Third German team in their sights
After their first two group games, Rangers had yet to register a point or even score a goal. For them to make it all the way through to the final after such a poor start is a unique achievement in the history of the UEFA Cup and the Europa League.
When Rangers face Eintracht in Sevilla, it will be the third time that they have met Bundesliga opponents in this campaign, after Borussia Dortmund and Leipzig. Should they go on to win the final, they will have eliminated three teams from the same country in the knock-out stage, which again would make Europa League and UEFA Cup history – something that the Eagles will be keen to avoid.
Path to the final
Rangers began their European campaign this season in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League by virtue of winning the Scottish Premiership. They were beaten in both legs by Swedish side Malmö FF, which sent them into the play-offs for the UEFA Europa League, where they won 1-0 at home and drew 0-0 away to Alashkert Yerevan from Armenia, putting them through to the group stage.
Defeats at the hands of Olympique Lyonnais and Sparta Prague saw Rangers get off to the worst possible start, but they turned things around to finish second in the group.
In the play-offs that came between the group stage and the round of 16, Rangers faced their first major challenge in the form of Dortmund, who had come down from the Champions League, but the team from Glasgow took the spoils 6-4 on aggregate. Red Star Belgrade and SC Braga were then swept aside, before Rangers eliminated another side from the Champions League in Leipzig to book their ticket for the Europa League final.
Interestingly, Rangers have lost all of their last three away legs in the Europa League, with their strong home form getting them through to the final. Eintracht themselves proved that this can be good enough for European glory: in 1980, the Eagles lost in Mönchengladbach, Munich, Brno, Rotterdam and Bucharest but still lifted the UEFA Cup.
Coach and tactics: Orange revolution
Rangers lifted their 55th Scottish league title last season, winning all 19 of their home games and going through the entire campaign undefeated. A major factor behind their success was head coach Steven Gerrard, who formulated an attacking, aggressive 4-3-3 formation that constantly put the opposition under pressure. When Gerrard moved back to the English Premier League in November 2021, former Rangers favourite Giovanni van Bronckhorst took over the reins after holding a number of coaching positions elsewhere, including enjoying success at Feyenoord.
The Gers have remained a dominant and aggressive team when chasing down the ball under the Dutchman, who has brought added tactical flexibility. This was particularly evident in the away leg in Leipzig, where the Glasgow side played a cautious 4-3-1-2 before switching to 3-4-2-1 for the home leg, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-2 aggregate win which saw them through to the final.
Rangers also often had a high press against BVB, looking to turn defence into attack and counter quickly via a direct route to goal, which certainly worked out well in Dortmund where they won 4-2. Since the arrival of van Bronckhorst, who brought a high-profile assistant coach in the shape of Roy Makaay along with him up to Scotland, a number of fringe players have been given a new lease of life. John Lundstram, who scored the goal that secured the win against Leipzig in the semi-final, and Scott Wright are two examples of players who have made the step up under the new coach.
Established pillars of the team such as captain and set-piece specialist James Tavernier on the right-hand side of the pitch and Ryan Kent on the left seem to be involved to a greater or lesser extent in every Rangers attack. Outside of those two lynchpins however, it is difficult to predict the starting line-up with any deal of certainty. With the sheer weight of fixtures plus injuries to be factored in, van Bronckhorst has been sending out a different starting XI every week.
James Tavernier: Captain, terrier, reliable from the spot
Plenty has already been written about James Tavernier this Europa League season, and for good reason. The Englishman is the leading scorer in the competition, with seven goals from 13 games. This would be a more than decent haul for a centre forward, but Tavernier is nominally a defender. His numbers leap off the page: since moving to Rangers in 2015 when they were then in the second tier of Scottish football, the wing-back has made 344 appearances in all competitions, scoring 82 goals and setting up 106 more – the kind of return that any attacker would dream of.
The 30-year-old has certainly earned the captain’s armband, a role that he has held since the start of the 2016 season, when he led the team to their first SPL title since returning to the top flight. This season in the league alone, Tavernier has 11 goals and 10 assists, handling all free-kick and penalty duties – statistics that speak for themselves.
No-one could have predicted that he would become the beating heart of this Rangers team when he made the move from Wigan in 2015. While his talent was undeniable, English football somehow did not seem to suit him. Newcastle picked him up from Leeds’ youth system in 2008 but he never managed to make the step up with the Magpies, who sent him out on a number of loan deals. Tavernier became something of a lower-league journeyman before heading up to Glasgow in 2015 to join a Rangers side that were having to fight their way back up the leagues after suffering bankruptcy. What a move that turned out to be, for both parties.
