Rangers struggled to victory over St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday but it was still better than some of their remaining Europa League rivals.
Vaclav Cerny struck the decisive goal at Ibrox Stadium to pick up three points ahead of Wednesday’s huge trip to Pittodrie to face high-flying Aberdeen. That means a rare midweek without any European football but they will resume their Europa League campaign next week with a trip to Greece. Here, Record Sport rounds up the weekend results of their remaining league phase rivals.
Olympiacos (away November 7)
The Greeks have been hit with a major blow after key Turkish international midfielder Yusuf Yazıci suffered a serious knee injury. The Ibrox side travel to Piraeus next week for the latest game in the new-look competition with a tricky encounter against last season’s Europa Conference League winners.
But they will be without 45-times capped star Yazıci who suffered a potential cruciate ligament injury in their 1-0 weekend defeat to Asteras Tripolis. He will be assessed this week to discover the extent of the damage but Olympiacos boss Jose Luis Mendilibar admitted it didn’t look good. He said: “Everything indicates he has suffered a cruciate ligament injury, but we have to wait until the swelling goes down to assess the length of time he will be out. It is a huge disappointment to him and to us.”
And Mendilibar wasn’t happy at his side’s defeat, which left them in fourth place in the Greek League. He said: “We have to stop thinking about the difference between league games and European games and treat them in the same way. We have to deal with them all. We keep playing nervously after a game in Europe.”
Nice (away November 28)
The French side inflicted Monaco’s first defeat of the season in the derby with their fierce rivals reduced to 10 men. The win lifts Nice up to eighth in Ligue 1, a point behind Lyon who won 4-1 at Ibrox.
Tottenham (home December 12)
Spurs slumped to defeat at struggling Crystal Palace and it was a toothless display from the Londoners. The Eagles had failed to win in their eight Premier League games but a first half Jean-Philippe Mateta strike was enough to seal the points.
Former Celtic boss Ange Postecolgou said: “It was one of those games with a lot of stoppages and battles and they ended up winning a lot of them and coming out on top. There was a lot of disruption and it was hard to get any fluency. They did better than us.”
Manchester United (away January 23)
Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag came under yet more pressure after his side slumped to a 2-1 defeat to West Ham United. Casemiro cancelled out a goal from Crysencio Summerville but the visitors were stunned in the dying moments when Matthijs de Ligt was penalised for a foul inside the box and Jarrod Bowen tucked away a late penalty. The result saw the Hammers move above United, who are languishing in 14th place and Ten Hag was raging. He said: “Before the season there was the instruction about VAR only interfering in clear and obvious mistakes. That is definitely not a clear and obvious mistake from the on-field referee.”
Union Saint-Gilloise (home January 30)
The Belgians suffered a 3-1 defeat at home to Cercle Brugge, who defeated Kilmarnock in Europe earlier this season, to leave them languishing in 10th place in the Jupiler Pro League. They are five games now without a win and struggling badly for form.