Young Boys v Rangers facts

Swiss champions Young Boys are looking to get off the mark in Group G as they host Rangers in Berne, the Scottish survivors from the first qualifying round having kicked off their group campaign with victory.

• As Rangers were overcoming Feyenoord 1-0 at Ibrox with a spectacular long-range strike from Sheyi Ojo, Young Boys were beaten 2-1 by Porto in northern Portugal, Jean-Pierre Nsame's 15th-minute penalty proving in vain.

Previous meetings
• The clubs have met in one previous UEFA competition tie, in the 1977/78 European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round, Rangers going through after a 1-0 win in Glasgow and 2-2 draw in Berne.

• Young Boys also lost their only other tie against Scottish opponents, going down 1-0 after extra time to Celtic in Glasgow after a goalless first leg in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup first round.

• Rangers are yet to win in three visits to Switzerland (D1 L2), most recently losing 3-0 to Grasshoppers in their opening group game of the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League.

Form guide
Young Boys
• Champions of Switzerland for the 13th time in 2018/19, having claimed their first league title in 32 years 12 months earlier, Young Boys also reached the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time, finishing bottom of a section in which they competed with Juventus, Manchester United and Valencia.

• Having defeated Dinamo Zagreb in last season's UEFA Champions League play-off, YB were unable to stage an encore this term, losing on away goals to Serbian champions Crvena zvezda (2-2 h, 1-1 a). They are therefore competing instead for the sixth time in the UEFA Europa League group stage. They have made further progress twice before, in 2010/11 and 2014/15, but have been unsuccessful in their two most recent attempts, in 2016/17 and 2017/18.

• The Berne club have won 11 of their 15 home games in the UEFA Europa League group stage (D1 L3), but have been victorious in just two of their last nine European encounters at the Stade de Suisse (D4 L3).

Rangers
• Rangers qualified for 2019/20 European competition as runners-up to Celtic in last season's Scottish Premiership. They also won four qualifying ties to reach the UEFA Europa League group stage for the first time, but just one win and six points prevented them from making further progress.

• Once again Rangers have come through four qualifiers to reach this season's group stage, defeating St Joseph's, Progrès Niederkorn, Midtjylland and, in the play-offs, Legia Warszawa, a late Alfredo Morelos winner in the second leg at Ibrox providing the only goal of the tie.

• Rangers failed to win an away fixture on their UEFA Europa League group stage debut last season, drawing at Villarreal (2-2) before losing at Spartak Moskva (3-4) and Rapid Wien (0-1). They are unbeaten home and away in Europe this season, however, winning seven and drawing two of their nine games, seven of which have yielded clean sheets.

Links and trivia 
• Saidy Janko spent two seasons as a Celtic player between 2015 and 2017. He is currently on loan at Young Boys from Group G rivals Porto.

• Rangers striker Jermain Defoe helped Tottenham Hotspur qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in August 2010, scoring in a 4-0 play-off win against Young Boys at White Hart Lane.

• Morelos was the top scorer in this season's UEFA Europa League qualifying phase with eight goals.

• Rangers boss Steven Gerrard scored for England in a 3-0 win against Switzerland at UEFA EURO 2004.

• Rangers are one of only two clubs to have reached this season's group stage after beginning their UEFA Europa League journey in the first qualifying round, Malmö being the other.

The coaches
• Appointed by Young Boys as the successor to Adi Hütter in July 2018, Gerardo Seoane emulated his Austrian predecessor by steering the Berne club to the Swiss Super League title. He also oversaw YB's debut UEFA Champions League campaign, which ended with a home win against Juventus. The former midfielder has a close and lengthy association with his local club Luzern, with whom he started and ended his playing career and also came through the coaching ranks, eventually replacing Markus Babbel as head coach in January 2018.

• A Liverpool legend with 186 goals in 710 appearances for the Anfield club, most of them as captain, Gerrard launched his managerial career at Glasgow giants Rangers in May 2018. An England international for 14 years, accumulating 114 caps and 21 goals, the dynamic midfielder won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League with Liverpool as well as both domestic cups. After an 18-month end-of-career spell with LA Galaxy he returned to coach Liverpool's youth team before the job at Ibrox lured him to Scotland, where he led the Gers to second place in the 2018/19 Premiership.