Rangers vs. Sparta Prague: Preview and betting tips

Sparta and Rangers will play for the second place in the group. Their match is scheduled for Thursday and may well decide who will play in the Europa League in the spring. What to bet on in this match?

Both teams have four points in the Europa League, Rangers thanks to a win and a draw against Brondby, Sparta for a win against Rangers and a draw against Brondby.

So this double match could be the decider. The qualifiers are primarily decided by the games between the two sides, Sparta won the first one and in case of a win they already know they will qualify, unless there is a surprise in the Brondby-Lyon game.

In the event of a draw, Sparta only need to win at home to Brondby, even a 0:1 loss would not completely eliminate the Czech team from the promotion fight, but they would have to hope for a Rangers loss at Lyon, a win at home to Brondby and also have a better score than the Scots.

In what form do both teams go into the game? Neither is in exceptionally good shape. Rangers may be leading the league, but they were knocked out by Hibernian in the League Cup.

Sparta remain in the cup, but have dropped to fourth in the league, thanks to a heavy defeat at Slovácko. What do the bookmakers say?

The Czech ones favour the home team at odds of around 1.8, you can bet on a draw at odds of around 3.7 and Sparta are even at odds of 4.8.

But what to bet on? Rangers are the favourites, but Sparta don’t play bad football in Europe and considering what they are playing for, I don’t expect a one-sided game.

The problem though is injuries, which will result in a combined lineup. Rangers have to play offensively as they know that a draw will quite possibly knock them out of the Europa League, so I expect a higher number of goals.