Rangers v Young Boys facts

An ultra-competitive Group G comes to a close with all four teams still harbouring hopes of qualification. Rangers top the section with eight points, one more than their Swiss visitors Young Boys, and have the added advantage of playing their final fixture in Glasgow, where they have an excellent recent record in European competition.

• Rangers have won both their Group G fixtures at Ibrox – 1-0 against Feyenoord and 2-0 against Porto – and drawn both games away to those sides, holding the Dutch side 2-2 in Rotterdam last time out thanks to a headed double from the prolific Alfredo Morelos. Young Boys, however, enlivened the group by losing 2-1 at home to Porto, who also beat them on Matchday 1 by the same score in their only other defeat of the section.

• Rangers will qualify for the round of 32, joining already-qualified arch rivals Celtic, if they avoid defeat against Young Boys. Thanks to head-to-head superiority over both Porto, who are on seven points, and Feyenoord, on five, the Scottish side can also progress if they lose provided that Porto do not beat Feyenoord at home in the group's other Matchday 6 encounter. As for Young Boys, a victory at Ibrox will guarantee their progress, as will a draw if Porto lose, whereas a defeat is sure to eliminate them.

Previous meetings
• An added-time winner from Christian Fassnacht gave Young Boys the three points at home to Rangers on Matchday 2, the Swiss champions' 2-1 win coming after the visitors had led through Morelos's first group stage goal at half-time.

• The clubs had previously met in just one 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.

• Rangers are unbeaten in three matches at home to visitors from Switzerland, most recently beating Grasshoppers 2-1 in the group stage of the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League thanks to an Ally McCoist double.

• 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.

Form guide
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 were obliged to 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 Morelos winner in the second leg at Ibrox providing the only goal of the tie.

• Rangers are undefeated in 15 home European matches, winning 11 of them including all six this season. They have conceded just five goals in those 15 matches, only one this term, and no visiting team has scored more than once in any of the Gers' last 21 UEFA competition encounters in Glasgow, stretching back to Matchday 5 of the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League when they lost 0-2 to Stuttgart.

Young Boys
• Champions of Switzerland for the 13th time in 2018/19, having claimed their first league title in 32 years the previous season, 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, from where they have made further progress twice before, in 2010/11 and 2014/15, but not in their two most recent campaigns (2016/17 and 2017/18).

• The Berne club have won just one of their last 20 European away games – 2-1 in Zagreb last season – and their record on the road in the UEFA Europa League proper is W2 D6 L11, their last such win having come on Matchday 5 of the 2014/15 campaign when they overcame Slovan Bratislava 3-1 in the Slovakian capital. Their record since then is D5 L4.

Links and trivia 
• Defender Saidy Janko spent two seasons as a Celtic player between 2015 and 2017. He is 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.

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

• Morelos was the top scorer in this season's UEFA Europa League qualifying phase with eight goals. The Colombian striker has also scored in each of Rangers' last four group games, his double at Feyenoord taking him to five in the competition proper, level at the top of the scoring charts with Munir of Sevilla and Bruno Fernandes of Sporting CP.

• 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.

• Rangers were defeated 1-0 by Celtic in the Scottish League Cup final on Sunday, Morelos missing a penalty shortly after their Old Firm rivals had gone ahead on the hour then had a player sent off.

The coaches
• 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.

• 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.