Malmo vs Rangers

Rangers go to Sweden on Thursday to play Allsvenskan leaders Malmo, opening their Europa League campaign.

After a lackluster start to the season, Philippe Clement's team is hoping to improve on their performance on the continent.

Both teams lost in the qualifying round of this season's Champions League, although Malmo has performed admirably since being eliminated from the playoffs.

The team led by Henrik Rydstrom is winning the Swedish championship handily, and since their defeat by Sparta Prague at the end of August, they have only allowed one goal in four league games.

More impressively, all four of those games—4-0 victories over Djurgardens and Hacken and goalless draws away from GAIS and AIK—came against teams with potential for success in Europe.

Malmo leads the league by an overwhelming 11 points with six games remaining, giving Rydstrom the flexibility to put the Europa League first going forward.

Since Malmo has lost nine of its previous twelve games in Europe, improving their performance on the continent will be a major goal.

The Swedes struggled through Champions League qualifying, only managing an aggregate victory over PAOK (6-5), and losing on the road to part-timers KI Klaksvik. However, Sparta proved to be too strong, and Malmo was eliminated at the last stage.

Playing eight games in the fall and winter will be very welcome for them after missing out on all of Europe last season, but they will be looking to improve on their 2022–2023 Europa League group-stage exit.

They will feel more certain that they can at least finish in the top 24 to guarantee a knockout spot because they were drawn to play Slavia Prague and Rangers, two of the worst clubs in pot one. It is believed that nine points from the eight games might be sufficient.

Rangers must bounce back from an extremely poor start to the season. They will have comparable goals, especially after being ranked first.

The worst-case scenario for the Gers, who dropped points against Hearts on the opening day and now find themselves five points behind Celtic, was a 3-0 thrashing in the first Old Firm game of the season.

The most disastrous outcome occurred during Champions League qualifying against Dynamo Kiev, as they were eliminated after a highly controversial red card. They lost 2-0 in the second leg at Hampden Park, and since their reorganization in the fourth division, they have only made it to Europe's elite competition once.

Though they were finalists in 2022 and lost to Benfica in the round of 16 in the previous season, their performances in the Europa League have brought them a lot of satisfaction in recent years.

Rangers' 3-0 cup victory over Dundee over the weekend served as preparation for this matchup for Clement's team. However, the match the week before was crucial because it saw them secure a much-needed away victory, defeating Dundee United 1-0 to snap a six-match losing streak. Rangers have only won three away games in the last seven months.

Rangers will be happy to learn that five of their next six games, including their matchday two and three matches in this competition, will take place at Ibrox following their journey to Sweden, regardless of the outcome.