By Laurie Finlayson

On Thursday, a Europa League crunch match takes place at Old Trafford, a Battle of Britain, if you will. Rangers travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United. There are quite a few parallels between the Glasgow side and the English giants, this season in particular.

The hosts are seriously toiling in the English Premier League, sitting 13th in the table, closer to the relegation zone than the title race, a far cry from the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, whose retirement the club has never fully recovered from, having not truly challenged for a league title since the former Rangers forward vacated the Old Trafford dugout. After United 3-1 loss to Brighton and Hove Albion, current Red Devils head coach Ruben Amorim said that: “We are the worst team, maybe, in the history of Manchester United” – a damning assessment.

Some sections of the Rangers support may have had similar opinions on their team, based on their domestic form as they are 13 points behind Celtic at the summit of the Premiership table. However, on the continent, the Gers show their true quality.

Think Manchester (in 2008), Seville, Dortmund, Rangers have history in Europe, and particularly in Europe’s second-tier competition. This is, undoubtedly a source of frustration for the Ibrox faithful who are crying out for consistency. Rangers supporter and SFF Podcast contributor, Josh Henderson, said: “In Europe, we set up the team to play counter-attacking football – we sit in order to hit teams that come out aggressively. We have struggled domestically with teams that sit in a low block behind the ball.”

That change of approach is something that has served Rangers well over the years, under the likes of Steven Gerrard and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, too, who, of course, lead them to the Europa League final in 2022. A key factor in this is mentality – something which is often underestimated. On this, Henderson added: “The team understand that they can get a result against just about anyone in Europe.” The Rangers-supporting podcaster also gave his take on the difference of approach between the Ibrox side on home soil and on the continent, concluding that: “Going into a game thinking ‘We can get a result against anyone’ is a different mentality to domestically of ‘We go into a game and should win against everyone’.”

Manchester United seem to be a shadow of their former selves. This game could all but decide the future of two British footballing institutions.