Rangers vs PSV Eindhoven facts

UEFA Europa League runners-up in 2021/22, Rangers are now bidding to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in 12 seasons – although they must overcome a PSV Eindhoven side who also enjoyed a lengthy European campaign last season.

Both teams suffered UEFA Champions League qualifying elimination in 2021/22. The Scottish side went on to play 17 UEFA Europa League fixtures only to fall at the last to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties in the Seville final, while PSV were unable to make it past the UEFA Europa League group stage but did go on to reach the quarter-finals of the new UEFA Europa Conference League.

Rangers and PSV both entered this season's UEFA Champions League in the third qualifying round, edging through after dramatic second legs against Belgian side Union St Gilloise and Monaco of France respectively.

Previous meetings
This is the sides' seventh contest with Rangers holding the upper hand having won three of the previous six – although PSV did record their first victory in the most recent, Jeremain Lens scoring the only goal of the clubs' 2010/11 UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie 14 minutes into the second leg in Glasgow.

Rangers' Steven Davis played in both matches with Allan McGregor an unused substitute.

Rangers have won three of their four European Cup games against PSV, prevailing 3-2 in Eindhoven in the 1978/79 second round second leg to win the tie by the same scoreline before wins away (1-0) and at home (4-1) in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League first group stage.

Form guide

Rangers
Rangers have made ten appearances in the UEFA Champions League group stage but have not featured since 2010/11 when, as in eight of their nine other campaigns, they were unable to reach the knockout rounds – the exception coming in 2005/06 when they got to the round of 16.

In that 2010/11 campaign, Rangers finished third in their section on six points, a 1-0 home win against Bursaspor the club's only victory in their last 16 group stage fixtures (D6 L9).

The Glasgow club have twice lost in the third qualifying round since that last group appearance 11 years ago, both against Malmö, in 2011/12 (0-1 h, 1-1 a) and 2021/22 (1-2 a, 1-2 h).

The Gers went on to finish second in their UEFA Europa League section behind Lyon on eight points, subsequently beating Borussia Dortmund (4-2 a, 2-2 h), Crvena zvezda (3-0 h, 1-2 a), Braga (0-1 a, 3-1 h aet) and Leipzig (0-1 a, 3-1 h) to reach their first European final since the 2008 UEFA Cup. As then, however, Rangers came up short at the last, losing 5-4 on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt after a 1-1 draw in Seville.

The Ibrox club produced another stirring home performance in their first European tie this season, overturning a 2-0 first-leg loss at Belgian side St Gilloise with a 3-0 victory in Glasgow.

Runners-up in the Scottish Premiership to Celtic in 2021/22, this is Rangers' first UEFA Champions League play-off; their record at this stage of the UEFA Europa League is W4 L1 with victories in the last four.

Rangers are unbeaten in seven European home games, winning six including the last four.

The Gers were 4-0 winners in their last game against Dutch opponents, a single-leg away meeting with Willem II in the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round. That made their overall record against Eredivisie teams W7 D5 L7; at home it is W2 D3 L3.

PSV
The most recent of PSV's 16 UEFA Champions League group campaigns came in 2018/19, when they finished fourth in their section having collected only two points from their six games.

The Eindhoven club have twice lost in qualifying since then, including in 2021/22 when they got past Galatasaray (5-1 h, 2-1 a) in the second qualifying round and Midtjylland (3-0 h, 1-0 a) in the third only to lose to Benfica in the play-offs (1-2 a, 0-0 h).

PSV featured in all three UEFA club competitions in 2021/22, moving across to the UEFA Europa League where they finished third in Group B behind Monaco and Real Sociedad having picked up eight points. That took them into the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League, which brought victories against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (1-0 h, 1-1 a) and Copenhagen (4-4 h, 4-0 a) before a quarter-final elimination at the hands of Leicester City (0-0 a, 1-2 h).

Second to Ajax in the Eredivisie for the second season in a row in 2021/22, PSV kicked off this European campaign in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, edging past Monaco in a tight tie (1-1 a, 3-2 h aet).

Last season's loss to Benfica made PSV's record in UEFA Champions League play-offs W1 L2, the sole success coming against BATE Borisov in 2018/19 (3-2 a, 3-0 h).

PSV are unbeaten in four European away fixtures (W1 D3).

Aside from their six games with Rangers, PSV's only other fixtures against a Scottish club ended in an aggregate defeat by Dundee United in the 1982/83 UEFA Cup first round (1-1 a, 0-2 h).

Links and trivia
Ruud van Nistelrooy, who replaced Roger Schmidt as PSV coach in the summer, scored the Dutch club's goal from the penalty spot in their 4-1 loss at Rangers on 20 October 1999 – a match in which current Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst played for the Scottish club.

Van Bronckhorst and Van Nistelrooy were Netherlands team-mates between 1998 and 2010.

Van Nistelrooy was also in the Manchester United side that won 1-0 at Ibrox in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage, the Dutchman scoring twice in a subsequent 3-0 win at Old Trafford.

Van Bronckhorst was assistant to Fred Rutten, now on Van Nistelrooy's coaching staff at PSV, at Feyenoord in 2014/15 before succeeding Rutten as head coach the following season. André Ooijer, who also played for the national side alongside Van Bronckhorst, is another member of PSV's coaching team.

Rangers' Ryan Kent and Ki-Jana Hoever of PSV were at Liverpool together from May to September 2019.

International team-mates:
James Sands, Malik Tillman & Richard Ledezma (United States)