Rangers vs Dynamo Kyiv

There’s all to play for in an evenly-poised Champions League third-round qualifying tie between Rangers and Dynamo Kyiv as the two sides meet at Hampden Park in the second leg following a 1-1 draw last week.

Due to the Ukrainian war, Rangers had to travel to Poland for the first-leg clash, but like Dynamo Kyiv, they cannot rely on the raucous atmosphere at Ibrox due to ongoing construction works. Cyriel Dessers’ 94th-minute equalizer in the first leg significantly improved Rangers’ chances of reaching the new-look league stage of Europe’s elite club competition. The Gers navigated Champions League qualifying as recently as 2022/23, but they slumped at the final hurdle last term. New manager Philippe Clement will look to flip the script this season after posting his first victory in charge of the Glasgow outfit over the weekend, with Rangers squeezing past Motherwell 2-1 in the Scottish Premiership.

The same scoreline saw Dynamo Kyiv squeak past Veres Rivne at the start of the Ukrainian Premier League last weekend, maintaining the visitors’ near-faultless record in the early 2024/25 season (W3, D1). Quick out of the blocks, they’ve taken a halftime lead in all those four games. Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s men commenced their Champions League qualifying journey with a jaw-dropping 9-2 aggregate win against Partizan Belgrade in round two. They won the away leg 3-0 to halt an underwhelming run of going winless in 90 minutes across 12 consecutive European travels (D3, L9). But Dynamo Kyiv’s historic trips to Scotland paint a bleak picture, as they’ve only managed one win in four (D1, L2), beating Celtic in 1967.