It’s with great excitement that the Belgian media today talks about Royale Union Saint Gilloise’s clash against Rangers in the Champions League tonight.
The match itself means a lot for the Jupiler Pro League side, and since they’re facing a club the size of Rangers, who were in the Europa League final, that’s one more reason for them to have big expectations about it.
So Het Belang van Limburg today features an interview with Thomas Buffel, who played for Rangers between 2005 and 2008.
The 41-year-old, however, didn’t take it easy on Union, and started by making it clear that Rangers have very good players in their squad.
“The individual quality at Rangers is much higher. Take Matondo for example: a simple acceleration makes all the difference, as we saw at Cercle Brugge last season. All the players are able to do the same there,” said Buffel (via Walfoot).
“Above all, it’s a difficult collective to manoeuvre because of the mixture of two styles. On the one hand, the club tries to play football in an attacking and neat way. That was already the case in my time and it only increased with the arrival of Dutch manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst. But if that doesn’t work out, Rangers can switch to typical British football: with a lot of passion and struggle, sleeves rolled up.”
And just so Union wouldn’t look like not standing any chance in the tie, Buffel pointed out a factor that may be Rangers’ biggest fragility.
“Rangers have lost their best defender to Ajax. Scottish journalists are expecting Sands to get a starting spot on Tuesday but he’s better in midfield. Union will have chances in the second leg anyway. The good atmosphere at Ibrox is usually an asset, but it can also backfire at Rangers.”
Rangers and Union tonight face each other in Belgium in the Champions League’s third round. The decisive match will then be held at Ibrox on the 9th of August.
