Rangers v Lyon predictions: French heavyweights can impress at Ibrox
Steven Gerrard's Gers may have met their match
Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Rangers v Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday.
Where to watch
BT Sport 3, 8pm Thursday
Best bet
Lyon draw no bet
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Team news
Rangers
Connor Goldson, Ianis Hagi and Ryan Jack miss out.
Lyon
Leo Dubois, Tino Kadewere, Lenny Pintor, Moussa Dembele, Thiago Mendes and Jeff Reine-Adelaide are sidelined.
Match preview
Rangers have amassed plenty of European experience with runs to the Europa League round of 16 in the last two campaigns but they may struggle against French heavyweights Lyon at Ibrox.
Involvement in the Europa League group stage is more of a rarity for Lyon, who have featured in the Champions League for four of the last five seasons.
Lyon have the highest Uefa coefficient among the 32 group-stage participants and it is surprising to see them priced up at 25-1 to win the competition.
Peter Bosz's team have had to absorb the departure of Memphis Depay, who moved to Barcelona, but they retained highly-rated midfielder Houssem Aouar and recruited quality and experience with the additions of central defender Jerome Boateng and attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri from Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
It took time for Lyon's new look squad to settle down but they are up to seventh in Ligue 1 after back-to-back victories.
They have the potential go all the way in Europe and should be targeting maximum points against the Gers, who are setting the pace in Scotland with 12 points from five games.
Rangers missed out on the Champions League group stage after a disappointing 4-2 aggregate loss to Malmo, and were unconvincing 1-0 aggregate winners over Armenian side Alashkert in Europa League qualifying.
Steven Gerrard's side are probably not playing as well as they did at the same stage of last season, and anything less than their very best could see them fall short on matchday one.
Key stat
Lyon have triumphed on three of their last four Europa League road trips.
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Published on inEuropa League
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