Rangers begin Europa League campaign at bogey team Malmo – live updates

Neraysho Kasanwirjo is selected ahead of Dujon Sterling at left back, with Ridvan Yilmaz still out injured and Jefte suspended.

Sterling drops out altogether, with Mohamed Diomande coming into midfield alongside Connor Barron.

Rangers XI: Butland; Tavernier, Souttar, Propper, Kasanwirjo; Barron, Diomande; Lawrence, Bajrami, Cerny; Dressers

Malmo manager Henrik Rydstrom has been turning heads in Europe through his “relationism” style of play – the 48-year-old, who worked his way up through the coaching ranks before joining Malmo in 2023, where he won the league in his first season – describes his football as “a philosophy of attacking movement without fixed positions”.

“It’s really strict in some other parts,” Rydstrom said. “But not from a positional point of view. And I think that also makes it a little bit unpredictable for the opponent.”

There are eight fixtures for Rangers to play in the new league phase rather than the previous six, including a couple of crackers against Tottenham and Manchester United.

Jan 23: vs Manchester United (A)

Jan 30: vs Union Saint-Gilloise (H)

It’s a disappointing return to the Europa League for Rangers, who would have wanted to join Celtic in the new-look Champions League. A 2-0 defeat at home to Dynamo Kyiv capped off a 3-1 aggregate loss to the Ukrainian side, and meant Rangers miss out on the Champions League for a second season in a row.

But they can be inspired by their run to the Europa League final in 2022, where the Glasgow side defeated, Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig on their way to reaching the Sevilla final, where they lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Philippe Clement does not have a natural left back available – with Ridvan Yilmaz still out injured and Jefte suspended. Oscar Cortes is out for “several weeks” with a knock picked up in training, having only just returned following an injury against Hearts on the opening day of the season.

The game kicks off at 17:45pm BST in Malmo. It will be shown live on TNT Sports 1.

Rangers begin their Europa League campaign against Malmo in Sweden.

The Glasgow side reached the Europa League final in 2022 but dropped into the competition this season having crashed out of the Champions League qualifiers. Philippe Clement’s side drew fixtures against both Manchester United and Tottenham, but start off with a tricky test at the home of the Swedish champions.

You can follow all the build up in our live blog.