Overview
In this year's Europa League round of 16, Athletic Bilbao had an impressive comeback against AS Roma to qualify for the quarter-finals. This is also their best result in this arena since the 2015-16 season.
With this year's Europa League final taking place at San Mames Stadium, Athletic Bilbao has more motivation to win the championship.
However, Athletic Bilbao still have many concerns before the away match against Rangers. In the past, the Basque team has traveled to Scotland twice and both times suffered defeats, including a 1-4 loss to Rangers in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1968 still in 6.
This is an obstacle that coach Ernesto Valverde's team needs to overcome in the first leg.
For Rangers, the loss to Hibernian left them 13 points behind Celtic and almost had no chance to compete for the domestic championship. Rangers only have the Europa League arena to keep hoping for a title, but this is not an easy goal.
In the round of 16, Rangers had to rely on a lucky penalty shootout to overcome Fenerbahce despite having a 3-1 lead after the first leg.
In the last 5 matches, Athletic Bilbao's attack has scored 5 goals, but has completely failed to score in the last 2 matches in La Liga. However, they do not need to worry too much as Rangers are defending poorly, having conceded 10 goals in the last 5 matches.
This is also the basis for believing that Athletic Bilbao will break the losing streak in Scotland. They are likely to be the team with the advantage before the return home match a week later.
Personnel situation
The victory over Fenerbahce cost Rangers when Mohamed Diomande and John Souttar were suspended. They are likely to make big changes to the squad.
On the other side of the front line, Athletic Bilbao has problems in defense. Yuri Berchiche and Aitor Paredes were injured in the match against Villarreal. Yeray Alvarez is also being questioned along with midfielder Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta.
Expected lineup:
Rangers: Butland, Sterling, Tavernier, Balogun, Propper, Yilmaz, Barron, Raskin, Hagi, Cerny, Igamane.
Athletic Bilbao: Agirrezabala, Lekue, Vivian, Gorosabel, De Marcos, I. Williams, N. Williams, Sancet, Gomez, Jauregizar, Sannadi.
The match between Rangers and Bilbao takes place at 2:00 am on April 11 (Vietnam time).
