Benfica vs Rangers: visitors face 'bad situation' without attacker in Europa League match against Thailand

Philippe Clement has admitted that Rangers face a selection dilemma away to Benfica in the Europa League as they are missing four wingers from their squad.

“I have five wingers and probably five of them will be out. It's a bad situation,” Clement said.

“It's a challenge and we have to figure out whether we stick to the same system or play players outside of their positions.”

Rangers, who lead the Scottish Premiership, lost at home to Motherwell on Saturday, while Benfica suffered an even worse result with a 5-0 defeat away to Porto, surrendering the domestic lead to Sporting Lisbon.

Roger Schmidt's side also finished third in their Champions League group behind Real Sociedad and Inter Milan, before beating Toulouse in the play-offs to reach the last 16. I'm looking forward to a response from the team.

“We are playing a good team with good quality,” said the Belgian. “This is a big challenge. This is exciting for us.

“We are playing a team with twice the budget, but we are really ambitious. We have to overperform and get a little bit lucky. We have to be very efficient. .”

Clement is hoping for a similar performance from Rangers' away win over Real Betis to secure top spot in their qualifying group, with Lisbon's pitch similar to Ibrox suiting his team's style of play. I think so.

“We're here to win,” he promised. “I never play for a draw.

“I don't believe in stopping the bus and just defending. I've never done that. Whether it's with a small team playing against PSG in Madrid or Paris or playing against Club Brugge in Leipzig. We were always attacking to win games.”

Opponent manager Schmidt has been criticized by fans for not publicly apologizing for Sunday's assault, but believes the best way to make amends is to put in a “perfect performance” against Rangers. There is.

The German was happy to have the opportunity to react so quickly and said: “I hope to have a good reaction after Sunday.''

“After the match, we were all a little shocked by the result, but of course we were also not happy with the performance.”

team news

Former Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Spain international left-back Juan Bernat, who has not played since October, was the only player absent from Benfica's training on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Clement said McCausland, who was forced off early with a foot injury against Motherwell, was “doing his job as an individual” and will be assessed on the morning before the match. It is said that

Fellow wingers Scott Wright, Rabi Matondo and Abdallah Sima are all set to miss out through injury, along with Oscar Cortes, who is not in the European squad.

Central midfielders Todd Cantwell and Kieran Dewell and striker Danilo are also unavailable.

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What do we know about Benfica?

The current Portuguese champions, led by Schmidt, head into the match against Thailand having suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season.

Benfica lost 2-1 to city rivals Sporting in the Taca de Portugal last Thursday, before bowing out to Porto in Sunday's O Clasico.

It was the second defeat of the season in the Primeira Liga, but allowed Sporting to take the lead.

Former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi and midfielder Ángel Di Maria are both recent World Cup winners with Argentina, while forward Rafa Silva's 17 goals this season have been his last for Rangers. It reminds us that he scored a goal during a visit to the Estadio da Luz.

At the other end of their careers is Otamendi's centre-back partner Antonio Silva. He is only 20 years old but has already played seven times for Portugal and is reportedly attracting interest from the Premier League, with 19-year-old midfielder Joao Neves also breaking out. Orkun Kokuc is a Turkish midfielder who joined the national team and pre-season from Feyenoord for a club-record £25m.

Read the full Benfica summary from match commentator Liam McLeod here.

what they said

Benfica manager Roger Schmidt: “We have to play another competition for the third time in seven days and we know there are always tough opponents in the last 16 of this competition and I think Glasgow Rangers are a very good team.

“They are top of the Scottish league and play very straight, direct football with lots of transitions, deep runs and crosses. We need a good result to go to Glasgow.”

Rangers forward Fabio Silva: “I had a good two years at Benfica, I learned a lot and I have nothing but good things to say about the club.

“Benfica need to react after the last two games, so we expect it to be a difficult game.”

match statistics

• This is the third time Benfica and Rangers have met in Europe, with the first two games both ending in draws (Portugal 3-3, Scotland 2-2) in the group stages of the 2020-21 Europa League.
• Rangers have only lost once and won two of their seven away trips to Portugal in Europe, with their most recent match being a 1-0 loss to Sporting Braga in April 2022. .
• Benfica have never lost a home match in the Europa League (27 wins, 21 losses, 6 draws), making them the most team to play at home without losing in this competition. The only time they failed to score at home was in a 0-0 draw with Galatasaray in February 2019.
• This will be Rangers' first appearance in a major European competition since the 2022 Europa League final, when they lost to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties after a 1-1 draw. They lost three of their four away knockout matches that season, and won the other 4-2 against Borussia Dortmund in the play-off round.
• Angel Di Maria contributed nine goals (four goals, five assists) in seven home appearances for Benfica in the Europa League, and scored twice against Toulouse in this season's play-off round. This made him the oldest Benfica player to score two goals in a major European match (36 years and 1 day).