| Venue: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow Date: Tuesday, 20 September Kick-off: 19:30 BST |
| Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app |
Rangers will stick to their “principles” in Tuesday’s Women’s Champions League qualifier with Benfica, says manager Malky Thomson.
The Portuguese champions are the visitors to Ibrox for this week’s first leg, with the return next Wednesday.
Thomson’s side overcame Ferencvaros and PAOK to reach the second qualifying round and are targeting a first group stage appearance.
“They’re striving for more,” the manager said of his players.
“This is the level we want to play in. We’ll utilise every minute on that pitch to gain valuable experience. We have faith and belief in ourselves. The standards have been set by the players.
“Given the journey that we’re on just now, the team has grown, it really has grown. We’ve made a few changes and had some new signings but our principles are the same.
“We’ll stick to those principles of play that we have and be confident in our ability to try and put a game plan together that’ll contain and maybe even cause problems for Benfica as well.”
Benfica ‘a free flowing team’
SWPL1 champions Rangers will be without defenders Hannah Davidson and Kathryn Hill, which Thomson says is “not an ideal situation”.
“That’s the nature of football and you just have to overcome and find solutions, which we’ve managed to do since the loss of Katherine and also Hannah,” he added.
“We’ve managed to see Benfica, we managed to watch them live last week and we’ve got some good footage of them also.
“We’re aware of the type of shape and the type of style that they’ve got. They’re quite a free-flowing team. They’ve got a lot of technical ability in their side.
“What the girls have achieved to date, to get to round two, is phenomenal. We’re going to enjoy the experience. We’re new to this environment, we’re new to the level of opposition that we’re going to play, which is a massive jump for us.”
