Malmo FF vs Rangers preview

August 2, 2011
By: Frank Beresford

Malmo produced quite a coup by beating Rangers 1:0 at Ibrox and the Swedish champions are now very close to the final qualifying stage.

The Sky Blues managed to win the Allsvenskan title last term, finishing the league campaign two points clear of second-placed Helsingborg, but their current Allsvenskan campaign has been nothing more than a big disappointment.

Malmo currently sit in 9th place in the standings, no less than 16 points adrift of leaders Helsingborg, and it seems they are now fully focused on their European exploits.

After largely struggling against weak HB Troshavn, the Sky Blues produced a very good performance at Ibrox to beat Rangers 1:0 and are now 1.50 (1/2) with William Hill to make it to the next round.

Seeing that they already have one-goal advantage, coach Rikard Norling is likely to deploy the same defensive tactics he used in the first game, with his team likely to wait for their chance on the break.

Brazilian Ricardinho returns to the side after missing the first leg, and that will be the only change to the team that started the first leg.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Melicharek – Halsti, Jansson, Andersson, Ricardinho – Durmaz, Mutavdzic, Pekalski, Hamad – Figueiredo, Larsson.

Rangers have had a very slow start to the season under new boss Ally McCoist and that could see them eliminated from Europe early on.

The Gers looked really rusty in the first match against Malmo and they had major problems in their build-up play, so we can safely say they fully deserved the narrow defeat.

There is no doubt that this team have a lot of room for improvement, which is exactly why many believe they can beat average Malmo side in the return leg, so you should know Gers are 2.38 (11/8) with Bet365 to win in Sweden.

Even though they are one goal behind, the Scottish champions cannot be expected to go all out in Sweden as that is just not their style of play, but they will rather adopt a cautious approach and hope that Malmo make some defensive mistakes for them to exploit.

Considering that Malmo have no reason to rush into anything, we are likely to see a very tight game, so odds of 1.80 (4/5) offered by Betfair on under 2.5 goals look too good to pass.

Ally McCoist is hoping new signing Dorin Goian will be allowed to feature in this match after they have launched an appeal to FIFA, but veteran David Weir is likely to miss out through injury.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-2-1): McGregor – Whittaker, Bougherra, Papac, Wallace – Davis, McCulloch, Edu – Naismith, Ortiz – Jelavic.

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