Rangers hope to keep run going against Valencia

Rangers FC will look to continue a promising start to Group C when they welcome Valencia CF to Ibrox.

• The Scottish titleholders built on their draw at Manchester United FC with a 1-0 home win against Bursaspor last time out having failed to collect a single point at Ibrox in last season's group stage. The challenge now is to get the better of a Valencia side who hit four goals at Bursaspor and won on their two previous trips to Ibrox.

Previous meetings
• Rangers and Valencia first met in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round in 1979/80 with John Greig, now a club director, in charge of the Scottish side.

• The teams drew 1-1 at Mestalla – Mario Kempes and Tommy McLean trading goals – before Valencia prevailed 3-1 at Ibrox. Kempes scored twice after Derek Johnstone had cancelled out an opening goal by Rainer Bonhof, later Scotland's Under-21 coach. Bonhof's free-kick deflected in off Sandy Jardine, today part of Rangers' back-room staff. Valencia went on to beat Arsenal FC in the final.

• When they met Rangers again in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League first group stage. Kily González's second-half double secured a 2-0 home win for Valencia and the Spanish side, eventual runners-up that year, then triumphed 2-1 in Glasgow, Gaizka Mendieta and Claudio López getting first-half goals before Craig Moore halved the deficit.

• With Dick Advocaat and Héctor Cúper the respective coaches, the lineups for the game on 26 October 1999 were:
Rangers: Klos, Porrini, Moore, Amoruso, Vidmar (Albertz 61), McInnes (Kanchelskis 38), Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Mols, McCann, Wallace (Johansson 75).
Valencia: Palop, Angulo, Djukić, Pellegrino, Carboni, Mendieta (Soria 80), Albelda, Gerard, González (Farinós 66), Ilie (Sánchez 69), López.

• The only survivor from the two squads is David Albelda.

Match background
• The last time Rangers welcomed Spanish visitors they suffered a 4-1 defeat by Sevilla FC in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage.

• The Scottish champions have failed to win any of their last five home encounters with Spanish opposition since a 1-0 UEFA Cup first round defeat of CA Osasuna in September 1985. Their overall record against Liga sides at Ibrox is W3 D3 L4.

• Valencia lost 1-0 at Celtic FC on their last visit to Scotland for a UEFA Cup third round tie in 2001/02 but went through after a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win. Vicente scored the only goal of the first leg.

• Unai Emery's Valencia performed impressively on their travels in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League – suffering just one defeat in seven away matches – and picked up where they left off in their Group C opener by crushing Bursaspor 4-0 in Turkey.

Team ties
• Pablo Hernández was a 70th-minute substitute as Spain beat Scotland 3-2 in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying at Glasgow's Hampden Park on 12 October. Rangers' Allan McGregor, Steven Whittaker, David Weir, Lee McCulloch, Kenny Miller and Steven Naismith were in the home lineup, Naismith making it 1-2 with his first international goal and Whittaker dismissed for a second yellow card in the 89th minute.

• Miller came off the bench for the final two minutes of an abandoned Spain-Scotland friendly at the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia in September 2004. Vicente was a substitute for Spain and Valencia old boy Rubén Baraja scored the hosts' goal in a match curtailed after 59 minutes with the score at 1-1 because of floodlight failure after heavy rain.

• Rangers' reserve coach Tommy Wilson was in joint charge of the Scotland team beaten 2-1 by a Spain side including Juan Mata in the 2006 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final.

• Alejandro Domínguez was an unused substitute when FC Zenit St. Petersburg beat Rangers in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.

• Roberto Soldado was on the bench as Osasuna overcame Rangers 1-0 in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup round of 16.

• Joachim Björklund made 59 appearances for Rangers between 1996 and 1998, when he left for Valencia. He spent three years with the Spanish club, scoring once in 57 league games. The former Swedish international was also in the IFK Göteborg team which beat Manchester United 3-1 in the 1994/95 UEFA Champions League group stage.