In-form Rangers face Barça test

Rangers FC may have surprised some observers by winning 3-0 at Olympique Lyonnais on Matchday 2 but that would be nothing compared to the small shockwave they would send around Europe if they managed to record a third successive win in Group E when FC Barcelona visit Ibrox.

• Walter Smith's team should have no sense of inferiority but they will be aware Barcelona represent their toughest test yet and not just for their pedigree. The two-time European champions lead Group E with six points and a superior goal difference to Rangers and will travel to Scotland eager to extend this marginal advantage.

• Rangers began their campaign with a 2-1 success against VfB Stuttgart, coming from behind to win through goals from Charlie Adam and Jean-Claude Darcheville. They built on that positive start with a stunning victory at Lyon on 2 October, Lee McCulloch, Daniel Cousin and DaMarcus Beasley scoring three unanswered goals as Rangers recorded their first away win in the UEFA Champions League since 2000/01.

• Barcelona were 2-0 winners at Stuttgart in their last outing, Carles Puyol and Lionel Messi netting in the second half. Previously Frank Rijkaard's men had proved too strong for Lyon on Matchday 1, Messi and Thierry Henry adding to the lead given them by François Clerc's own goal.

• Rangers have made strong starts in past UEFA Champions League campaigns. In 2005/06, they took three of an eventual total of seven points from the first game; in 2003/04, it was four points from their first two games and then no more; in 2000/01, they managed six points from Matchdays 1 and 2 and only two more thereafter.

• Barcelona have won only once in six previous meetings with Scottish opposition. That victory came on their last visit to Glasgow to face Rangers' neighbours Celtic FC in the UEFA Champions League in September 2004 – Deco, Ludovic Giuly and Henrik Larsson were the scorers in a 3-1 success.

• Prior to their 2004/05 group stage meetings with Celtic, Barcelona had lost two-legged UEFA Cup ties to both Dundee United FC in 1986/87 and Celtic in 2003/04.

• Rangers have lost six out of seven two-legged ties against Spanish opposition, the most recent reverse coming last season in the UEFA Cup Round of 16, where they lost 2-1 on aggregate to CA Osasuna. Brahim Hemdani's injury-time equaliser earned Rangers a 1-1 first-leg draw prior to their second-leg defeat in Pamplona.

• Rangers' most recent UEFA Champions League opponents from Spain were Villarreal CF, whom they met in the first knockout round in 2005/06. The Light Blues fought back twice to salvage a 2-2 draw at Ibrox but a 1-1 draw in Spain left them eliminated on the away-goals rule.

• Barcelona defender Lilian Thuram was part of the Parma FC side defeated 2-0 at Rangers FC, and 2-1 overall, in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round tie in August 1999. More recently, Thuram was in the France team surprisingly beaten by a Scotland side featuring four Rangers players – David Weir, Alan Hutton, Lee McCulloch and Barry Ferguson – in a UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying match in Paris in September.

• Weir, McCulloch and Ferguson were also in the side that beat a France team including Thuram and Henry 1-0 in Glasgow in October 2006.

• In his playing days Blaugrana coach Frank Rijkaard tasted victory in Glasgow with the Netherlands national team that beat Scotland 1-0 at Hampden Park in March 1994.

• Rangers' Spanish forward Nacho Novo began his career with SD Huesca before leaving his home country to join Raith Rovers FC in 2001/02.