Rangers begin Europa League campaign at bogey team Malmo – live updates

Malmo’s social media accounts caused a stir on Tuesday night by reminding Rangers of their previous defeats to the club.

Malmo’s Twitter/X account posted: “Welcome back to Malmo, RangersFC. We’ve missed you” – in reference to their 4-2 victory on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers in 2021.

Malmo also beat Rangers 2-1 on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers in 2012.

Philippe Clement has committed his future to Rangers after he was linked with the vacant Anderlecht job in Belgium.

Clement, who played and managed Club Brugge in Belgium, signed a new deal with Rangers in August through until 2028.

“It’s really clear, I engaged myself long-term for Rangers last month, so whoever comes, whatever team comes, I’m not going to go away,” he said.

“I’m really clear. I want this project with the club to make it really successful for the future, and we all know we need time for that, we need a few transfer windows for that, we need a lot of work to do that, and that’s what I want to do.

“Because I love the city, I love the club, I love the dynamic at Ibrox with the fans, so I’m here to stay.”

Former Leeds and Brentford centre-back Pontus Jansson starts for Malmo, forward Isaac Kiese Thelin is the top scorer in the Swedish league with 14 goals, captain Anders Christiansen is an influential No 10 and the Denmark international scored a brace in the 4-0 win over Hacken at the weekend.

Malmo XI: Dahlin; Stryger, Jansson, Rosler, Busanello; Pena, Berg Johnsen; Berg, Christiansen, Bolin; Kiese Thelin

Neraysho Kasanwirjo is selected ahead of Dujon Sterling at left back, with Ridvan Yilmaz still out injured and Jefte suspended.

Sterling drops out altogether, with Mohamed Diomande coming into midfield alongside Connor Barron.

Rangers XI: Butland; Tavernier, Souttar, Propper, Kasanwirjo; Barron, Diomande; Lawrence, Bajrami, Cerny; Dressers

Malmo manager Henrik Rydstrom has been turning heads in Europe through his “relationism” style of play – the 48-year-old, who worked his way up through the coaching ranks before joining Malmo in 2023, where he won the league in his first season – describes his football as “a philosophy of attacking movement without fixed positions”.

“It’s really strict in some other parts,” Rydstrom said. “But not from a positional point of view. And I think that also makes it a little bit unpredictable for the opponent.”

There are eight fixtures for Rangers to play in the new league phase rather than the previous six, including a couple of crackers against Tottenham and Manchester United.

Jan 23: vs Manchester United (A)

Jan 30: vs Union Saint-Gilloise (H)

It’s a disappointing return to the Europa League for Rangers, who would have wanted to join Celtic in the new-look Champions League. A 2-0 defeat at home to Dynamo Kyiv capped off a 3-1 aggregate loss to the Ukrainian side, and meant Rangers miss out on the Champions League for a second season in a row.

But they can be inspired by their run to the Europa League final in 2022, where the Glasgow side defeated, Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig on their way to reaching the Sevilla final, where they lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Philippe Clement does not have a natural left back available – with Ridvan Yilmaz still out injured and Jefte suspended. Oscar Cortes is out for “several weeks” with a knock picked up in training, having only just returned following an injury against Hearts on the opening day of the season.

The game kicks off at 17:45pm BST in Malmo. It will be shown live on TNT Sports 2.