European watch - Royal Antwerp

Seen them once earlier on the season and they were good but I wouldn't be surprised if they just collapsed 2nd half of the season
 
I think we can beat them in both games, but if we got a score draw over there that's still a good result to bring back to Ibrox.

Big games after each game as we'd have scottish cup 4th round tie after the away game, and then away to Livingston after the Ibrox game.

Not to. Underestimate out opponents, it would be nice to wrap it up early in both games.
 
Mbokani will cause our centre half's problems no doubt about it but our forwards will pose them the bigger issues.
 
I think we’ll absolutely scud them.

That Mechelen team really aren’t up to much and they were apparently very convincing today.
 
We are unlikely at this stage in the competition to get diddies. I’m hoping we will get past them though.
 
That’s who Jack Hendry (Celtic flop) plays for. Can’t say I’m too worried about Antwerp, think we’ll get through this tie comfortably.
Yip, he was booked yesterday. Read a headline today saying they are interested in keeping him permanently.
 
Bit off topic here, I just noticed Willem II are 2nd bottom of the Dutch league. They looked a handful when we played them a few months ago. Very surprised to see they are struggling.

Pretty sure they only got in to the qualifiers through being in the Dutch cup final.

Any comfortable win for us away from home in Europe is a good result but they're pretty pish really.
 
Pretty sure they only got in to the qualifiers through being in the Dutch cup final.

Any comfortable win for us away from home in Europe is a good result but they're pretty pish really.
The over hyping of them on here was genuinely the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen on this forum.

It was bizarre, I think I said 3-0 In the prediction thread & got the “Dutch side, can’t be underestimated, must exert caution” etc etc

Folk were going on as if they were the second coming of Ajax 95, when in reality they are a lower end Dutch club.

17/18 they stayed up by 7 points, 18/19 they stayed up by 10 points & 19/20 the league got stopped.
 
Looking forward to the European games. Anything can happen at knockout stages but would fancy us to qualify over two legs. Such a shame we likely won't have fans at the home games any time soon. I think they have fans at their games. Although European games can have us not at 100% in next league game we now have the squad and the confidence grows from passing these tests against stronger teams.
 
The over hyping of them on here was genuinely the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen on this forum.

It was bizarre, I think I said 3-0 In the prediction thread & got the “Dutch side, can’t be underestimated, must exert caution” etc etc

Folk were going on as if they were the second coming of Ajax 95, when in reality they are a lower end Dutch club.

17/18 they stayed up by 7 points, 18/19 they stayed up by 10 points & 19/20 the league got stopped.
I thought we would beat them at the time, but it was a potential banana skin game, especially for 3rd round unseeded opposition.

4-0 was a fantastic score, it did flatter us a little though. They did have a couple of good chances themselves. We played the game in 2nd gear for the majority of it.

I was a wee bit surprised to see them 2nd bottom after 18 games. They weren't brilliant, but rated them around mid table in the Dutch league. They unsurprisingly have shipped a good number of goals. In fact, the best result they have had all season was drawing with Ajax (who they play this week again).
 
I thought we would beat them at the time, but it was a potential banana skin game, especially for 3rd round unseeded opposition.

4-0 was a fantastic score, it did flatter us a little though. They did have a couple of good chances themselves. We played the game in 2nd gear for the majority of it.

I was a wee bit surprised to see them 2nd bottom after 18 games. They weren't brilliant, but rated them around mid table in the Dutch league. They unsurprisingly have shipped a good number of goals. In fact, the best result they have had all season was drawing with Ajax (who they play this week again).
Of course 4-0 is a fantastic score, but we should be expecting to beat teams like that by a few goals given how good we are.

I’m confident we will beat Antwerp by a couple!.
 
Fairly confident we can get through this round if we play like we did in the group stage.

This team are no better than what we have already played and we should be looking to win home and away.

Cant wait for it and it's getting closer!
 
There whole squad nearly went on strike last week when that striker Lamkel Ze was allowed back in the squad after the Anderlecht top incident, caused ultras to storm the training ground twice. When he scored the winner for them against the side Bates plays for midweek they refused to celebrate with him.
 
Bit off topic here, I just noticed Willem II are 2nd bottom of the Dutch league. They looked a handful when we played them a few months ago. Very surprised to see they are struggling.

I think we were overly generous in our appraisal of them tbh. They have some good footballers, as do most of our European opponents, but were lacking the quality, physicality and experience to win games at that level.

I thought we were pretty comfortable against them, Legia and, to a lesser extent, Liege.

That is a compliment to us however as we are now a level above these teams. Unfortunately we will suffer the same fate as we get deeper in the competition and face teams who are a level above us.
 
I've been keeping a close eye on them. We have nothing to fear whatsoever. I only foresee comfortable victories in both legs. Should things go a bit tits up in Belgium, we will do whatever is necessary at Ibrox. If we play the way we did at the weekend there, we'll blow them away Midtjylland style.
 
No we won’t they are a good well structured physically equipped team this tie will be close imo
My old man lives in Antwerp and has done for 38 years. He says they are not anywhere near us technically but that they are in his words, dirty bustards who will target any playmakers for a tough time. This will be a tough one.
 
Getting drawn against Royal Antwerp was possibly the best we could have hoped for. It’s a fairly straightforward trip for the squad and we have already disposed of a Belgian team in the groups, so we can take confidence from that.
I also think we’re ready to move up a gear after a spell where we perhaps haven’t been at our best. Jack’s back, Hagi is staking a claim for more game time, Roofe is just about ready to play, Kent was on fire at the weekend and Aribo has his mojo back. I understand things can happen between now and the EL matches, in terms of injuries etc, but we’re currently in a good place and we’ll hopefully be flying out the traps against Antwerp next month.
 
Glad the tie was not right in the middle of January when we have had some crucial games, 4 more domestic games before it, if the leagues over by then i would hope we would put everything into Europa League to get the coefficient right up. The league is 100% the priority
Correct me if im wrong but we if we get it in the right place we get automatically into the groups next year? This would be a game changer for finances!
 
I don’t think you swat anyone aside at this stage in the competition.
Exactly this. Sure we may get a good result but we will be made to work for it. There will be no dross left at this stage and although I don't really follow Belgian football, I am sure they will be a decent side. As others have said, this is a favourable draw for us but still a difficult one. Having said that I, will be shocked and disappointed if we don't go through.
 
Fashion Sakala, who we have been linked with, got one of the Oostende goals on Saturday night.

We should be confident of winning this tie but it won't be easy.


 
My old man lives in Antwerp and has done for 38 years. He says they are not anywhere near us technically but that they are in his words, dirty bustards who will target any playmakers for a tough time. This will be a tough one.
Your old man knows %^*& all :D

Antwerp are the cleanest team with regards to yellow and red cards in the league.

2 coaches ago we were a very hard team, not dirty but not afraid to put in a hard tackle. Under the previous manager that kind of stopped because he was more focused on attacking football and the current one... well... let's just say the defence is a shambles and probably won't even get close enough to a Rangers player to put in a challenge.

Can't see past 2 relatively easy Rangers wins.
 
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