Rangers v Tottenham: Betting Preview and Best Bets for Europa ...

At the end of a tumultuous week, Tottenham Hotspur have a chance to salvage some pride and collect some much-needed points as they travel to Ibrox to take on Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou and his players have been on the receiving end of stinging criticism following their 4-3 home defeat to Chelsea last Sunday, especially galling given they led 2-0 at one point in the match.

That most recent setback means Tottenham have now lost seven of their opening 15 Premier League games of the season. Those relatively unimpressive figures leave them sitting in 11th spot, some way off the European positions.

As an ex-Celtic manager, Postecoglou knows Glasgow inside out, and will be fully aware that he's set to receive a particular reception from Rangers fans here. Many supporters in the home sections would be absolutely delighted to add to the misery that 'Big Ange' and his visiting Tottenham players are suffering right now.

And yet, for all the doom and gloom surrounding Tottenham as they prepare to travel north of the border, this game represents a great opportunity for the Premier League outfit to get back on track. It will be a tough fixture, but the London-based visitors stand an excellent chance of picking up all three points.

Spurs Should be too Strong for Gers

Under manager Philippe Clement (pictured above), Rangers’ stats in the competition are good this season – they’re W3-D1-L1 – but we would query the standard of the opposition they’ve faced. Their 4-1 win at Nice in their last match was an outstanding result but their Ligue 1 opponents were severely weakened by injuries and suspensions that night.

Wins that Rangers have enjoyed over Malmo (2-0, away) and Steaua Bucharest (4-0, home) hint at the talent in the home ranks, but the result that offers the best guidance to this week's fixture was their 4-1 defeat at home to Lyon on October 3. Lyon were excellent that night, and showed how vulnerable Rangers can be at home when facing a strong attacking outfit from a top European league.

Tottenham have generally rotated in their Europa League games so far this season, so there’s no guarantee they will field their best side here.

Under pressure to get a result after what happened in the Premier League last Sunday, however, Postecoglou may name a stronger side here than he normally has done in the competition so far. Even if he doesn’t, the players that take to the field will be fully aware of how important it will be to secure a victory, both for the purposes of getting points on the board, and also to keep the media wolves at bay.

Best Result Bet

In the Match Odds market, Rangers are 3.45 (49/20) to win, while Tottenham are 2.1 (11/10) and a Draw is 3.94 (47/16). The odds-against price on the visitors is worth taking. Yes, their form is a concern, but their motivation levels will be high, and they ought to have too much quality for the hosts. After a failure to win either of their last two games in this competition – they lost 3-2 at Galatasaray on November and drew 2-2 at home to Roma on November 28 - we're backing Tottenham to triumph.

• Top selection - Back Tottenham to win (2.1)

Pape Sarr the Smart Pick for Goalscorer

The fact that Tottenham have frequently rotated in this competition makes it difficult to know who to back in the Anytime Goalscorer market. Some of the names at the top of this market - Richarlison, for example, who is available at 7.0 (6/1) - may not start.

In the event of a player you’ve backed not starting the match, your stakes are normally returned to you (always check an individual site's terms and conditions to be sure about this) so the risk you’re taking is low. But it still pays to try to work out which players at longer odds are better value in this competition because their chances of starting are higher than they would be in the Premier League.

Best Goalscorer Bet

Pape Sarr is one player to follow. The 22-year-old has started three Europa League games while coming off the bench as a substitute in the other two, and this competition appears to suit him. He’s scored twice so far, finding the net against Qarabag (3-0, home) on September 26 and Ferencvaros (2-1, away) on October 3. The Senegal international midfielder is best-priced at 7.0 (6/1) in the Anytime Goalscorer market at the time of writing.

• Top Selection - Back Pape Sarr to score (7.0)

Big Opportunities on Corners

One area where Tottenham would appear to have a clear superiority over Rangers is in winning corners. If you look at the two sides’ corners stats across the five games they’ve each played in the Europa League so far, the Premier League outfit clearly come out on top.

Rangers have won an average of just 3.4 corners per game in the Europa League, conceding an average of 3.8 corners per game. Tottenham are winning far more corners – they’ve averaged 5.6 corners per game, meaning they're likely to put Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland under some serious pressure – but have also conceded more, too (an average of 6.0 corners per game).

What to do with these numbers? The high number of corners that Tottenham have conceded is a concern, but we believe that overall they’re likely to win more than Rangers will. We expect Tottenham to do the lion’s share of the attacking, and that should, over the 90 minutes, translate into more corners for the visitors.

Best Corners Bets

Tottenham are best-priced at 1.80 (4/5) in the Most Corners market, with Rangers 2.60 (13/5) and a Draw 8.50 (19/2). As well as winning the game, we expect Tottenham to triumph in the head-to-head corners competition, and this is our strongest selection on the game.

• Top selection - Back Tottenham in the Most Corners market (1.85)

Odds from Oddchecker - correct as of 10.12.24