Rangers seek Europa League respite, Villa face Feyenoord test

Beleaguered Rangers manager Russell Martin finally scraped to his first Scottish Premiership win in charge at the weekend and next takes his struggling side to Austria to face Sturm Graz in the Europa League on Thursday.

The former Southampton boss was brought in with the goal of reaching the Champions League proper and challenging Celtic for the domestic title.

Rangers finished second in the Premiership last season, 17 points behind their Glasgow rivals, after sacking Philippe Clement midway through the campaign,

The nervy 2-1 victory at lowly Livingston on Sunday left Rangers eighth in the 12-team table, already nine points behind surprise leaders Hearts.

Rangers, despite only winning one Scottish title since 2011, have found some respite in Europe in recent years, reaching the 2022 Europa League final and the quarter-finals last term.

But continental football has just piled on the misery so far this campaign.

A humiliating 9-1 aggregate thrashing in Champions League qualifying by Club Brugge was followed by a tame 1-0 home loss to Genk in their Europa League opener.

Rangers finally gave Martin something to cheer at Livingston, thanks to Max Aarons’ injury-time winner.

“I think it could be a real big moment for us,” Martin said.

“It felt really good in the dressing room, I enjoyed their celebrations.

“I’m really pleased for the players because they showed how hard they’re fighting for each other, for us, for me.”

Despite ending Rangers’ longest winless league run since 2005, fans still chanted for Martin to be sacked after the final whistle.

“I can’t control it and I can’t waste energy focusing on it,” he said. “I have to use that energy for the players and the staff inside the building and to try and improve us and to win more games.

“And hopefully if we do that, everyone will be happy.”

Rangers at least will not be facing Belgian opposition again, although Sturm Graz have won back-to-back Austrian titles.

The top 24 teams in the 36-team league phase reach the knock-out rounds, and Rangers will be staring at an early exit with another defeat.

Aston Villa travel to Rotterdam to take on Feyenoord in a battle of former European champions, hoping to put firmly to bed any talk of an early-season crisis.

After going winless in their opening five Premier League matches, with just one goal scored, Unai Emery’s men have responded with a Europa League win over Bologna and a 3-1 Premier League victory against Fulham.

Last season’s Champions League quarter-finalists will be given a real test of how far they have come in recent weeks at unbeaten Eredivisie leaders Feyenoord.

“We needed to win, it was very clear,” Emery said of the Fulham match.

“We played with energy and passion and changed through the match because we recovered confidence.”

Elsewhere, Roma host Lille looking for back-to-back wins over French clubs after last week’s 2-1 success at Nice.

Nottingham Forest will hope to notch their first win in Europe since 1995 when they take on Danish side Midtjylland at the City Ground.

Celtic welcome Braga to Parkhead, while FC Porto host Red Star Belgrade.

Agence France-Presse