Glasgow Rangers of Scotland defender, Leon Aderemi Balogun will not be in action for his side against Peter Olayinka’s Slavia Prague of Czech Republic, as the Super Eagles’ star is suspended for the encounter in the UEFA Europa League round of 16, megasportsarena.com reports.
So soon after celebrating his first ever European club title with The Gers, as they clinched a 55th overall diadem in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, Balogun will not get the opportunity of consolidating with the squad that also has Joe Aribo primed for action.
The odds are staked in favour of Rangers, though they visit Olayinka’s side at Eden Arena, ahead of which Gers’ coach, Steven Gerrard has decided not to risk Ryan Jack ahead of Rangers’ opening clash.
The Scotland midfielder has shrugged off a calf complaint but Gerrard has decided to keep back Jack for the second leg at Ibrox next week, which means the Liverpool legend will rely heavily on Aribo to call the shots in the middle of the pack.
The Glasgow-based side’s skipper, James Tavernier (knee) is still out along with long-term victim Nikola Katic (knee), the suspended Balogun and ineligible Jermain Defoe but Kemar Roofe does return from a calf complaint.
Both the former Leeds striker and midfielder Glen Kamara are just one yellow card away from a ban, which means they will be cautious against Olayinka’s side, who have only lost one of their last 10 home matches in the Europa League (W6 D3), which happened to be a 1-0 defeat against Chelsea in a quarter-final match in April 2019.
However, this will be Rangers’ first ever meeting with Slavia Prague in European competition; they last faced Czech opposition in the 2002-03 UEFA Cup first round, going out on away goals to Viktoria Zizkov.
Despite winning all three of their home games against Czech opponents in European competition, Rangers have been eliminated in each such tie – to Dukla Prague in the 1981-82 Cup Winners’ Cup, Sparta Prague in the 1991-92 European Cup and Viktoria Zizkov in the 2002-03 UEFA Cup.
Rangers will be the third Scottish club to face Slavia Prague in major European competition; the previous two both progressed – St Mirren in the 1985-86 UEFA Cup first round and Hearts in the 1992-93 UEFA Cup first round.
