Rangers vs Tottenham Prediction, Odds and Lineups: 6/1 tip in the shots market

Rangers welcome Tottenham to Ibrox in the Europa League tonight, live on TNT Sports 1 at 8pm.

With under an hour left to go until kick-off, there's still time to check out Oli Nixon's match preview, best bets, and information on the lineups.

Ange Postecoglou watched his Spurs side throw away another 2-0 lead on Sunday against Chelsea to make it just one win in their last seven games in all competitions. That solitary victory was their 4-0 demolition of Man City, demonstrating how capable they are when it all comes together, however, all too often the Australian’s stubborn, all-out attack style is seeing them come undone.

This game is an important one as it sees Tottenham travel to the side one place above them in the Europa League table in eighth. Rangers have taken 10 points from five European ties and having beaten Nice 4-1 on their travels in the last matchday in this competition, they’ll have ambitions of qualifying for the latter stages. Domestically, they’ve taken 22 points from their eight home fixtures in the SPL and have conceded just three goals in the process. However, a 4-1 reverse to Lyon in this competition back in October demonstrates that they can struggle when stronger sides come to Glasgow.

With a huge disparity between Rangers and most opponents in Scotland, we’ll focus on their data from the Europa League this season and if one thing is clear, it’s that in this competition, they’re piling in the shots.

Their five matches have seen them average 16.2 with at least 12 shots in four of those games. The only game where they failed to cover this line was away at Olympiakos where they fell one short. Their two home fixtures have seen shot totals of 23 against FCSB and 16 against Lyon, suggesting that the Ibrox faithful add a further impetus to their attacking play. In particular, the aforementioned defeat to Lyon saw them have just 45% possession, a figure that will be similar in this game.

Spurs’ defensive struggles under Postecoglou have been well documented and with the Aussie seemingly convinced that a change in style isn’t the way forward, this looks set to continue. Their gung-ho approach to games has seen them ship 17 shots per game across their last 10 and in this competition, they’ve given up an average of 16.8. When Spurs have gone away, Galatasaray managed 28 shots and Ferencvaros 15 and in total, four of their five Europa League opponents have managed at least 12 shots.

We’ve covered Rangers shots already and the averages suggest that 14 shots is well within their reach but to boost our second selection, we’re also after centre-back John Souttar to have at least one of those efforts at goal.

The lanky Scot has averaged 0.5 shots per game this season across all competitions and is a key threat from set pieces with seven goals since 2021. 10 of his 12 shots this season have come from set plays and with Spurs struggles defending such situations, he’ll be a focal point from most restarts.

Tottenham’s set piece deficiencies were noted in this column for their game with Galatasaray and since that game, they’ve allowed 3.75 xg from opposition set plays and conceded four goals from them in just seven matches. When questioned about this Achilles heel by the media, Ange seems intent on denying it exists and there appears to be no sign of improvements with him instead choosing to focus on the absence of centre back pair Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven. Too bad then that both limped off in Sunday’s defeat and look set for a further spell on the sidelines.

With Ben Davies also struggling with a knock, that leaves Spurs options at centre back as Radu Dragusin, utility player Archie Gray and youth player Alfie Dorrington who has yet to play for the senior side. Whichever combination Postecoglou chooses from those three, it lacks in experience and height and looks ripe for a Souttar shot.

Rangers vs Tottenham Lineups

Tottenham's side features the likes of Son, Johnson, Werner and Maddison, while Butland starts in goal for Rangers.

The starting lineups for Rangers vs Tottenham are displayed in the graphic below.