Glasgow Rangers of Scotland duo of Joe Aribo and Leon Aderemi Balogun have divergent previews reeling round them heading into their club’s opening game of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, while Aribo has been declared fit and ready to play, after a recent bout with injury, Balogun is ruled out with a red card carryover from last season.
The update out of Ibrox Stadium revealed that the former Fortuna Dusseldorf, SV Darmstadt, Werder Bremen and SV Mainz 05 of Germany centre back will not be there when The Gers step out for the first leg of the UCL third qualifying clash away to FF Malmo of Sweden.
Heading into the game at Eleda Stadium on Tuesday evening, Balogun has to see out suspension from an expulsion he in March, when he was sent off for a second bookable offense in the 73rd minute of Rangers’ 2-0 loss to Slavia Prague of Czech Republic in the UEFA Europa League.
Rangers’ coach, Steven Gerrard will have to make do without Balogun, who has played a total of ten games in European competitions, consisting of eight in last season’s Europa League and two with Mainz in the same second-tier championship.
On the other hand, Aribo is in contention to feature against Malmo, as Gerrard managed well the former Charlton Athletic of England’s midfielder’s fitness level with limited game time in the 3-0 rout of Livingston on Saturday.
Gerrard ensured that the injury-prone Super Eagles’ dazzler played only for 64 minutes following his return to training, and Aribo will now be expected to replicate his sparkling exploits against Malmo, who the Swedish Allsvenskan title last year.
Malmo will equally flaunt some Nigerian theatrics of their own, as they will likely line out deft midfielder, Innocent Bonke, who has featured in all four matches of the Scandinavian club in the qualifying rounds of this season’s Champions League.
