PSV (Ned) vs Rangers (Sco) prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-08-29 19:00.
At this stage a year ago, PSV hosted Rangers in a second leg UEFA Champions League (UCL) play-off tie after a 2-2 draw at Ibrox rescued via a late goal. Remarkably, history repeated itself in the first play-off leg of this UCL edition, but the Dutch side will be desperate to avoid making the same mistakes here, after a 1-0 loss in last year’s corresponding fixture denied them a first group stage appearance since 2018.
PSV will still enter this clash as favourites, but the fact that this is their seventh match in a busy August might count against them. That said, the Rood-witten remain unbeaten in the six prior (W5, D1), and they’ve been highly entertaining for the neutral along the way, with four of those matches seeing both teams score and 4+ total goals in the game.
Much of the same could be said of Rangers, who have had a similarly busy August (W4, D2, L1), with all three of their prior UCL games this term seeing goals at both ends. Another famous success at the Philips Stadion would see Rangers make successive UCL group stage appearances for the first time in 13 years.
However, that famous victory here 12 months ago remains their sole away win at any UCL stage since November 2007 (D6, L10), and more recently, every UCL away defeat last season saw Rangers’ hopes of a clean sheet survive less than 30 minutes. That was also the case in the away leg of their most recent qualifier (D 1-1 vs Servette), but Gers manager Michael Beale was optimistic after the first leg result against PSV, simply stating: “we'll go there and we'll have a right go again.”
Players to watch: If anyone can make him live to regret those words, it is surely PSV’s Ibrahim Sangaré, who repeated his Ibrox goal of 2022 with an equaliser in this year’s first leg clash. Interestingly, three of his last six goals have come via headers. After Sangaré’s first leg strike, Rabbi Matondo restored Rangers’ advantage for just a few short minutes – a fourth lead-giving goal across his five most recent strikes.
Hot stat: Five of Rangers’ previous six UCL away draws have ended 1-1.